


Super Sentai - Avengerangers

by Llixale



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Super Sentai Series, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Enemies to Lovers, M/M, Super Sentai, lovers to ennemies, or something like that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-15
Updated: 2018-06-18
Packaged: 2019-05-07 10:18:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 25,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14668971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Llixale/pseuds/Llixale
Summary: The Avengers x Kaitou Sentai Lupinranger VS Keisatsu Sentai Patranger crossover absolutely nobody asked for but I'm going to give you anyway.Adieu <3





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So, I hope this isn't as messy as this sound but I needed an excuse to have Steve and Sam at odds.  
> Enjoy.

_“What about that one? He looks like a cowboy. Maybe he will let you ride him, if you ask nicely” Riley suggests with a really not so subtle wiggling of his golden eyebrows, finishing his beer in a last gulp._

_They’re sited at a random bar and, as usual, Riley’s favorite game after one glass of whatever alcohol he takes is “find Sam Wilson a man”. He had somehow managed to find someone cute for his best friend a couple of times so Sam plays along willingly._

_“Dude, look at his belt”_

_“Oh fuck, a confederate flag, cancelled”_

_“You know you can’t say cancelled right? This isn’t your “culture” Sam joked, already laughing at the faux-outraged face Riley did right at his word._

_“I’ll let you know I’m a double part of the LGBTQAIAKOIAD community, thank you very much”_

_“Wait a minute, what is “OIAD” standing for? What even is the double part you’re talking about?” Sam asked, not sure if he was messing with him or not. You could never be sure with Riley, even after knowing him for almost ten years, he often found himself asking for clarification._

_“Well, as you know, the second A is for Ally” Sam already was grinning, pinching the bridge of his nose but did a movement with his other hand in a “carry on” gesture. “OIAD means Once In A Dream”, because sometime I make very gay dreams”_

_Sam was losing it, trying to hold his laughter back at the perfectly serious face looking at him. He failed._

_“I can’t with you, damn, I’m going to pee myself from laughing, I’ll be right back” Sam said, getting up to the restroom._

_He was still giggling while washing his hand after doing his business. He was ready to get out when a sensation of cold hit him. Maybe the place suddenly decided to turn on the AC? He opened the door, smacking into something making the sound of shattered glass._

_“I’m sorry” he was already saying before looking at the ice on the ground and no one in sight._

_He wondered where was everyone, having been gone for a few minutes._

_Because the restroom was in front of the kitchen down a narrow staircase, he could see a big pile of ice from a small window in the door. No, not a pile of ice. A block. With someone in it. Before he could touch the door, the block shattered, making the same sound as what he had hit before._

_Feverishly, he walked toward the staircase, tripping two times. The second he got to the main level, he looked for Riley. There was no one else but him, in a block of translucent ice._

_“Riley?” Sam asked before shouting “RILEY!” he took a step toward him, feeling the crack even before seeing it._

_The sound._

_“No…”_

_He ran outside, turning toward the first person he could see. A man with long dark hair and eyes as cold as the ice inside._

_“Please, help me, please…”_

_The man looked at him with something in the eye Sam couldn’t understand. “Sorry”_

 

 

* * *

 

 

« Adieu » they can ear as the Lupin Rangers disappears into the night.

 

“Not again! I can’t believe that shit. What the hell is GoodStriker doing? Why is it helping them half of the time?” Nebula was complaining, not for the first time about that sentient Lupin piece deciding to do as they wanted and helping the bad guys instead of helping arrest them and bring them to justice.

“Well, as long as the Gangler was destroyed, that’s what matter, don’t you think?”

Nebula looked ready to slap some sense into Scott as they were walking toward their car, the cleaning team already nearby.

“Nah, they keep steeling Lupin’s piece from them each time, letting us do all the dirty work and have the audacity to use them against us later”

“Guys, come on, we have to do our report. I really don’t want to spend my night on it” Steve said, sitting at the driver’s place as usual.

Nebula kept complaining, especially about Lupin Yellow, the one who ended up facing her earlier. She had a combat style based on dodging and redirecting opponent movement to her advantage which was a little too useful against someone with a more brutal approach like Nebula. Beside, something about her felt familiar.

They may be frustrated but for some reason, Commander Fury didn’t seemed to mind that much. Repeating that the Gangler were their top priority and that they will deal with the thief team later.

“At least we don’t have to care about _murdery funko pop_ again. This is the kind of thing that give you nightmare” Jarvis commented, analyzing the report on a large screen. Data going and leaving the screen faster than any human could proceed.

“Jarvis, you can’t dream, you’re a robot” Scott quickly said frowning.

They looked at each other, Jarvis expression unreadable since his face was basically a ball with two eyes.

“Let’s go, we’re done for tonight” Steve cut, not letting them continue their staring competition any longer. They had were conversations sometimes.

 

Out of the Global Special Police Organization building, the night was warm, letting them almost forget their small injuries. Their suit was great, taking almost all of the damages but facing Ganglers and the Lupin team at the same time was dangerous and they knew how a false sense of security could lead to a disaster.

“You know what I need right now?” Nebula asked, shaved head against the window.

“A mojito” Scott provided from the backseat.

“A mojito” she agrees, making an appreciating sound and already turning her head toward Steve.

He resists for about two minutes (a record) before asking “where?” while sounding as defeated and tired as he could pretend.

“Oh, I don’t know Steve, where could we go that serves good drinks” Nebula snorts, the sarcasm dripping from her tongue.

“More like, where could we go where Steve can make heart eyes at the barman? Speaking of which, did you asked for his name finally?” Scott inquired apparently genuinely curious.

“First of all, I don’t make heart eyes to him, secondly, I don’t even know who you are referring to” Steve answered, unable to stop himself from blushing. He could try all he wanted, he was already driving in the direction of the bar.

“So...” Nebula started “since you don’t know what we are talking about, maybe we can go to the '87?”

“Oh yeah, the '87! They have a nice happy hour”

Steve knew a part of that was them messing with him and trying to push him to admit where exactly he wanted to go but after a work day and being stolen once again by the Lupin Rangers, he needed some eye candy. Who could blame him?

“Or…” he tried, aiming for innocent and failing so hard Scott was already laughing at him.

“To be honest, it’s hurting me to see you like this Steve. You could already have his number if you were just a little less pathetic” she comments.

He doesn’t take offense. He knows Nebula since the start of the training program to join the GSPO three years ago. They had a rough start but not as rough as Nebula and Scott, oh boy, Steve thought they would never stop fighting but the loss of her sister changed Nebula and the team was here for her in that moment, making them more than colleague, they became friends.

 “Alright, alright, he IS cute, don’t lie”

“Yeah, If we were into men, maybe we would tap that” Scott grins. Steve makes a face as Nebula reluctantly lets Scott high five her.

“So Bistrot Jurer is it” Steve mumbles barely hiding his smile.

 

 

The Bistrot Jurer had a complete makeover more than a year ago. It really wasn’t on the radar of a lot of people before but since the change and the new team, it started getting more positive reviews. Steve, Scott and Nebula started frequenting the place only two weeks ago when Nebula accidentally ran into her friend Mantis.

She knew Mantis since she was little. She was her sister best friend but they lost contact a few years ago, then her sister disappeared and it was hard for them to reach the other one. Still, Nebula had been happy to see the older woman and follow her to her new job at Jurer as a waitress. If Nebula couldn’t care less about who was working here beside Mantis, Steve clearly had someone else in mind. Way too shy to make a move, he looked at the black man with golden undertone and the goatee from afar. Behind the bar, he was preparing the drinks with dexterity.

“Ha, my favorite clients” Mantis welcomes with a smile and a hug to Nebula “come here, there’s a good table available” she smirks, placing them right in front of the bar but Nebula and Scott take the sofa, making Steve facing them and the wall instead of the barman.

The both of them were looking malicious, wondering how long Steve could last before cracking his neck.

“If you buy a round, I trade seat with you” Scott proposes with the face of someone trying to get you to make a deal with the devil.

The speed with which Steve was standing again and shooing Scott away even surprised Nebula “Damn boy, you’re thirsty” but, after all, he was only looking. So it may be just a little creepy but he wasn’t doing anything wrong since he had absolutely no plan to talk to the guy.

When Mantis took their order and went to the barman, telling him about the drinks and pointing to the table where they were. Steve locked eyes for a second with him and he could swear the man had smile.

Did he smiles to him? Steve didn’t want to get his hopes up but at the same time, let him dream a little. He lets himself go back to the conversation Nebula and Scott are having and forgets about their drinks entirely when someone comes to them.

“Three _Mojito du Chef_ ” a masculine voice interrupts, placing the tall glasses in front of them with a smile. “It’s on the house. Well, it’s from Mantis in fact” he stops as his eyes met Steve’s, frown a little for a second, which make Steve eyes go wild in surprise, before turning to the other two “So, uh, I used an eight year aged rhum so, I hope you’ll like it” he quickly finishes before vanishing away.

“Wooow” Nebula comments “That was bad Rogers. It’s like…he saw you and he made that face…wow”

“You saw that? I didn’t imagine it. Why did he made a face? Do I smell bad?” he asked, taking a sniff at his t shirt without noticing anything abnormal. He turns toward the bar feeling a little offended. It’s bugging him for the rest of the night, even earning him a “don’t think too much about it” from Scott but not only does he thinks too much about it that night, he wake up with “the face” in mind the next day.

 

“The last time you were that focused in training, someone had punctured your tires. Is this still about the barman?” Nebula question as she gets up from the training mat.

“No”

But then, she attacks again and end up on the mat once again because Steve is pissed off and feels like fighting harder.

“Go talk to him, I don’t want any bruises on my ass tomorrow”

“I don’t want to talk to him, I just wanted him not to make that face when he looked at me” he pouts, crossing his arms and all.

“Oh my god, I swear Steve, if you don’t, I’ll call Mantis and make sure this is embarrassing for everyone involved”

He was about to respond when they get a message to meet with Fury.

 

“Another attack?” Sam asked, already feeling ready to go.

“Yes. I believe that Gangler is in possession of the _Bienvenue Poupée_. That particular piece can animate objects. You must get it back” Vision said, showing them the drawing of it in his old big book. It looked like a block of post-it from what they could see.

“Peter and Wanda aren’t here yet so we better be quick and finish it before the opening” Shuri said, texting the two other workers just in case.

“The Pat Rangers are going to be so mad when we stole another piece right under their noses” Mantis commented more to herself than the others.

“Let’s go then” Sam decided, leaving Vision there, knowing that the man will disappear as he always does.

 

They find the monster at Hinton Park near the parking. People were already running around and the Gangler was in his real form. They immediately understood why he attacked there. The park was hosting some sort of exposition with big animals sculpture and now, they were running in chaos, charging at people and at cars”

“Destroy them my children, destroy them all” he was commanding them, putting one small page of his collection piece on a bear sculpture who starts moving toward the Rangers. “Porderman, go” he adds with glee.

Avoiding the charging bear, the team gets their dial fighter in hand and make the code allowing them to transform.

“Thief change!”

_Masquerase!_

“Lupin Red”

“Lupin Blue”

“Lupin Yellow”

“Oh, I didn’t remember inviting you to my vernissage but you’ll make good trophies anyway”

The lackeys are quickly defeated and the Gangler, Chlo Unspoil, cornered. Blue is about to make a move to his safe when a laser hit the ground right in front of her.

“Stop! You are all under arrest!” Pat green shouts as he joined them, Red and Pink right behind him.

“That was actually pretty good, I’m impress” Red compliment his team mate as he takes the lead. “I’m taking care of Lupin Red and the Gangler”

They rush into battle and it’s a dance they have done several time. The Lupin are trying to get their hand on the Gangler’s piece, The Pat are trying to destroy the Gangler and the Gangler, feeling like he won’t win against all of them tries to escape while hitting anyone under his fury hands. Lupin Red manages to open the safe while Yellow actually takes the Lupin collection piece.

“Not this time” Pat Red says, with a quick signal, Green joins him and they both hit Yellow, using the surprising behavior as their advantage to take back the piece to themselves.

Yellow and Blue are coming to them, when they see the entire Pat Team preparing for an ultimate attack. They manage to avoid it but the Gangler behind them, not so much.

Before Lupin Red can understand if they tried to get the three of them or only the Gangler, Hela appears out of nowhere “My dear treasure, nurse Chlo Unspoil back to health” she says.  They all know what comes next and the Lupin can only accept defeat as GoodStriker sides with the Pat Team to fight the monster.

“Red, what do we do?” Yellow asks, looking at the fight near them.

“It’s no use to stay here, we will get it back one way or another”

They leave, each of them already thinking of ways to get that piece back.

 

 

“You did well, for all we know, they are gathering more firepower” Fury says, gesturing for an agent to go place the piece in a secure location. ”Their motive are as obscure as the Gangler’s, all we know if that they aren’t on the same side”

“Yes but why aren’t we on the same side then?” asks Steve.

“The enemy of my enemy should be my friend” Scott adds, agreeing with his leader.

“Maybe when they stop stealing and shooting at us we can have a brunch and ask them why they aren’t being nice? They may be against the Gangler but they also robbed two museum last month” Nebula reminds them, not pleased with the idea of them working together.

“But this is weird. They must need the piece for something. Why the Gangler have them in the first place? Who are they working from?”

“This is what we need to know Rogers. We have a serious lack of information and we need to be more pro-active. The Gangler can’t be reasoned with but maybe we have a shot with the Lupin Rangers so, at best, arrest them, at least, try to get information from them” Fury commands, dismissing them at the same time.

 

 

“I’m sorry I lost the piece” Mantis says once back to the Bistrot. She looks defeated and isn’t reassured by Shuri’s look.

“It’s not your fault, they don’t usually come at us like that once we got the piece. We need to be more careful. In the end, they can take them all, we will rob them anyway” Sam puts a hand on her shoulder, smiling like this is simple.

“They can’t open the monsters safe themselves so we still need to do it but they probably don’t know how many pieces exist so once we know for sure between us and them we have everything, stealing the one they have won't be a problem” Shuri agrees, trying to think one step ahead as usual. While they all have their own motivation, Shuri’s determination can, at time, need some management. Sam tend to be the one talking to her and stop her from testing some colorful plans at the Pat team expanse.

“Of course. The more we get ourselves, the better. Hey Peter, how many bottles of vanilla liquor do we have? We might need to make an order soon” Sam asks as the young part timer appears from the kitchen where he usually help Shuri. He knows the man was listening anyway and their "activity" isn't a secret for Wanda and him.

“Umhhh, let me see…Two. But since we will use them Wednesday as part of the cocktail special of the day, we can order today to have a delivery soon Mister Wilson”

“Peter, how many time do I have to tell you to call me Sam? Order four bottles please”

Peter grins, shrugging before going back from where he came from.

 

Five minutes after the opening, some regular arrives. The afternoon is peaceful, most of the clients are coming as an afterwork so they aren’t surprise to see Mantis friends a little after 6pm. Since she was busy with some clients it's Sam who welcomed them.

“Hello, table for three? Follow me”

He guides them to a table near the entrance. The blond one seems silent today. It’s none of his business, he is here to work so he keep his professional smile on before going back to the bar.

He just finishes the last drink when the blond man comes to him.

“Hey” he says “It’s coming, can I do something else for you?”

“Hey, yeah, no I’m not here for the drinks. Uh, it’s probably nothing but last time we came, you…you did…uh. Is there a problem with me or something?” The man asks, making Sam stops and look at him in the eyes.

“A problem? No, why? What do you mean?”

“Sorry, it’s just that you looked at me and made a face like…” he give an imitation and an apologetic look.

Sam eyebrows are in his hairline and he has to put the beer he is holding down.

“Uh…”

“Oh…shit, sorry. I’m…sorry” the man say, taking a step back, body radiating embarrassment.

“Wait, wait a minute” The blond stops, turning to Sam without looking at him at first. “Sorry, this is really unprofessional of me. I can assure you, there’s nothing wrong with you. Nothing at all, you seems…cute, I mean…charming like a handsome firefighter, you see? I never met an ugly firefighter myself to be honest but they wouldn’t look like you that’s for sure. So in conclusion, if something where wrong with you it wouldn’t be with your appearance or what I did see which isn’t much”

Steve is too surprised by the explication to really understand what all of that meant. He only throws an “oh okay” before going back to his friends.

Sam disappears under the bar, cursing everything for making such a fool of himself. Something about that man makes his mouth act before his brain. This isn’t right. He would be fine not appearing in front of him again but Mantis is already running left and right with clients so it’s up to him to bring them their drink.

He put his head high, act as unbothered as he can and put their command on the table, he is fast, ready to go back to the bar when he feels something on his arm. It’s the blond man. His face is red and visibly, the other two are trying very hard not the laugh. Sam just doesn’t know at what exactly.

“I am Steve, and this is Nebula, Mantis’s friend and Scott. Can I invite you for a coffee later?”

“A coffee?” Sam repeats, looking around them because…they do serve coffee here.

“Oh, Lord, not here, not that here isn’t good, just, outside of your work. Cause…I want…a date…with you”

Sam laughs, because this was so unexpected that the relief makes him instantly happy.

“Sorry, are you serious?”

Steve sit straighter, feeling a bit more confident “Yes”.

Sam smiles at him then show him his hand, palm toward the ceiling in a move clearly asking for something. Steve, who doesn’t understand put his hand in his making Sam laugh again. His hands are soft and cold because of the drinks.

“Your phone you idiot” Nebula hisses.

“Oh, yeah, of course, I knew that” Steve quickly adds, looking for his phone and unlocking it before replacing his hand with it in the open palm.

Sam shakes his head, put his number in it before giving it back to Steve before leaving.

“That was…no a total trainweck” Scott encourage, nodding along.

“That was painful, so painful like…I can’t believe you took his hand Rogers. I will never forget”

 Steve, embarrassment still surrounding him like a soft fog tries to save his honor “I have his number!”

Nebula turns to Scott, then Steve “So, what’s his name?”

Steve face crumble at the realization, looking through all his contacts to look for the newly added number and the name attached to it.

 

 

Sam.

Sam makes him laughs, makes him feel good about himself and make him want to ravish him right here in the middle of the street as the black man finishes his ice cream.

Steve didn’t have any plans in mind when he had asked Sam for a date but right now, there’s nowhere else he would want to be.

“This is so good, their pistachio is just…HEY!”

Steve took advantage of Sam talking to steal his spoon and taste it for himself.

“Delicious indeed” he confirms, moaning even a little, they wrestle play and he manages to steal another one.

“Give it back Steve” Sam threaten half joking.

“Take it then” he says, putting the spoon in his mouth with a wink, thinking that Sam would let him have the last word. Instead, Sam comes from behind, passes a hand across his chest, the other came to his mouth and get his spoon back, putting it in his mouth as Steve turns, biting his lips.

He may have a case of erectus penisum right now.

It’s easy between them. Too easy in fact. Each of them come to that conclusion when it’s time to go their separate way. The question “where have you been all my life?” hanging in the air as they leave. The second and third rendez-vous are the same, a moment out of their life, something just between them, far away from their work and mission.

They know it’s only by luck no Gangler attacked during those moments but they can manage for a few hours to forget about it all. No, not forget, they can’t forget, more like put aside, in the back of their head. Just enough to be in the here and now.

It’s the end of their third date, it’s raining and Steve drove Sam back to his place. It’s been twenty minutes and they are still talking in the car, not really wanting to go. Sam feels a vibration in his pocket, bringing him back to earth.

“I need to go” he says lazily, “ _I don’t want to_ ” unspoken but understood.

“I know” Steve says when all he wants it to say “ _don’t_ ”.

It’s easy between them, easy as Sam kissing Steve. Their first kiss, the sound of the rain around them and a warmth inside they don’t fully understand. Sam feels his body shiver. It’s pleasure mixed with fear because he doesn’t know how long he can keep someone like Steve around. Steve is a force making him want to be better and worse, to be honest. But how do you explain to someone that you’re fighting monster AND the police to get your hand on mystical artifact before them?

It’s Steve’s phone time to ring and with that, they separate.

 

When they meet again on the battlefield later that night, they have another reason to fight harder. Neither of them are giving up, after all, they have someone new to protect.


	2. Chapter 2

_“Come on Shuri, we will be late if we don’t leave now. Dad is already waiting by the car”_

_T’Challa never liked to be late. He is the kind of man to arrive at least twenty minutes early to all of his appointment. Right now, Shuri taking a look at the various shops in the Queens center Mall looking like a kid on Christmas. Was the reason they were still here._

_“Brother, I think they forgot a coma somewhere because there’s no way that little bag can cost that much. I can’t even hide one of my chakram inside”_

_“Yes you can, I know you can make them smaller than your hand, let’s go now”_

_T’Challa was already outside by the time she decided she had seen enough._

_It happened in an instant._

_She was going through the revolving door and once outside, everybody was frozen. Blocks of ice next to blocks of ice, dozen of them._

_It didn’t take her long to see the one with her brother in it, next to their father car. He was outside, both of them facing the mall. Both of them trapped.  She doesn’t dare touch them, words strangling her from the inside. She knows people are screaming not that far. There’s that horrible sound of shattered glass coming closer and closer, until she knew who it would touch next. There was nothing to do as the two men in front of her disappears._

_“No…” she murmurs “No, NO NOOOO” she starts screaming as well, looking around her only to see people in various states of despair. Like her. She sees a man, a white man with long black hair, looking at her with tears in his eyes before going away, letting her fall on the ground._

_“I can fulfill your desire” someone say next to her._

_She looks at the stranger, he has something shiny on his forehead and is dressed like a butler. He handles her what seems to be a weapon._

_She doesn’t even hesitate._

 

“I am getting tired of that woman/thing always appearing to make them big. Having to fight a monster again without actually destroying half the city is hard” Sam was saying to his team “Sooner or later we will need to take her collection’s piece anyway so next time, I think it would be wise to separate so I can take care of her”

“By yourself?” Shuri asks, clearly skeptical.

“I need you to make sure the Patrangers ain’t going to stop me. Can you two hold them for a little while?”

Shuri and Mantis nods, when Peter decides to intervene.

“Maybe I could help you then? I mean, they are cops right? So maybe if they see a civilian around they’ll change their priority” he proposes confidently. Every once in a while, Peter would try to go on the field.

“Wait a minute, actually, that make sense” Shuri says, surprised with herself.

“I don’t think we should put you in arm way, you can’t morph so if things turns bad, you will be defenseless” Mantis advises.

“I can fight too, Mantis, you know?”

Sam thinks about it. Yeah, Peter could fight but he couldn’t morph and it wasn’t a game, they were risking their life. He wasn’t here to loose someone else.

“Peter! How many time do I have to tell you that you are not going to fight? You have your exams next month, are you even ready?”

“Wanda, we are talking about life and death situation here, we need to help them”

The two of them often fought about how they could help the Lupin Ranger in their mission. Peter wanting to be a fighter with them while Wanda was more down to earth. Peter even asked directly to the mysterious Vision if he didn’t had a changer for him. Vision had looked at Wanda then and laughed before walking away.

“You will not mess up another year Peter Parker, that’s the deal. You work here, you help in your own way but you have to work with your studies too”

“Wanda is right Peter” Sam finally cut “You two are helping us plenty by keeping the business open when we aren’t here. We don’t need attention and a bar closing at random moments of the day would be too weird. I know you are frustrated but we won’t use you as some kind of bait” he concludes before giving Peter’s shoulder a squeeze, softening the pout the young man already have.

 

Vision showed up with Wanda and Peter early on their Lupin days. A little more than two weeks after their debuts in fact. She was angry and he was scared. Both of them needed answers that Vision started to provide. For now, all they knew was that the attacks were the work of a very powerful Gangler. Both of them had lost their last close relative in the same attack so it only made sense that a family-type of relationship would keep them close.

It reminded Sam that he was fighting not only for him or his fellow Rangers but to anyone who had lost someone to the Gangler. He couldn’t give up, no matter how long or how hard it would become.

The sensation of his phone vibrating through his pants took off a part of the heavy atmosphere, especially with the smile blooming on his face when he saw the caller.

“I know that smile” Wanda teased.

“That must be Steve, oh, say hi for us” Mantis added while Sam got up and outside of the Bistrot to be alone.

He didn’t want to look thirsty too much so he didn’t actually initiated the proposition to a date but boy, if he wasn’t quick to answer when Steve did.

“So you remember that liquor shop we saw the last time and how you made fun of me because I never had tequila in my life?”

“Oh, I like how that story begins, tell me more” Sam answered, his smile could be heard by Steve who chuckled.

“So, they had various kind of alcohol and I may have bought three of them. I ain’t going to drink that alone Wilson so when are you free?”

Sam smile dropped as the idea of going at Steve’s to drink was giving him all kind of bad ideas already, however, he needed to keep his mind clear just in case of an attack. Besides, he didn’t need to drink one drop to spend a good time with Steve. The excuse was just too good to pass.

“Whenever you want Rogers. Bring it”

 

So they meet the next day after their work.  Sam is nervous to be in Steve’s place. It’s not really big but homey. Just sitting on the couch seems intimate.  Fortunately, Steve breaks the ice and they don’t think as much about being here, alone.

Some homemade pizzas and drinks later, (Steve likes tequila a lot, gin, a little less) they are once again on the couch, talking about everything and nothing, getting closer and closer. Physically but most of all, emotionally.

“You know, my best friend he likes…liked this kind of things. I really wasn’t handling alcohol well when I was younger. “One glass of wine and I was out” he laughs, shoulder against shoulder. Sam hadn’t miss the past tense. Steve looks at his glass with intensity, making the last drops roll at the bottom. ”He is the reason I do what I do now. Working with the police I mean. I always wanted to help but he is the one who convinced me that I could actually do it. I really wasn’t the sporty kind”

“Don’t tell me you were some kind of overweight kid and one day everything just disappeared”

“No, quite the contrary in fact, I was skinny and kind of weak. It was like my body hated me but…well, stuff happened I guess and Bucky…”

“What is a “Bucky”?”

“My best friend, James, but I called him Bucky because of his middle name. I knew him since we were kid”

Sam looks at Steve, his eyes seems redder but not ready to cry yet. He guesses it’s okay to ask what happened to him. He takes Steve hand as the blond tries to find his words.

“He was on a mission and it didn’t turn well. It’s complicated”

“I’m so sorry”

“It’s okay, I mean, it’s not but so many people have lost someone-”

“Yeah. Yeah, I know”

And the way Sam said it makes Steve turns toward him, reading on his face the confirmation he would have preferred not see. This is not the kind of shared experience he wanted to have with Sam, yet here they were.

“Come on, don’t cry, if you cry I’m going to cry too” Sam says, eyes as shiny as Steve who can’t hold off anymore.

He throws himself at Sam, hugging him close, strong. “I’m sorry” he wants to say again. Sam murmurs “it’s okay” again and again, even if it’s not.

“Who was it?”

“My best friend too. Riley. I miss his stupid face”

So they talk about them, and even if it’s hard at first, they end up laughing and feeling lighter. Steve has that ability to make Sam actually wants to share things about himself. Which is dangerous but exciting.

Before he can start spilling all of his secrets, he tries to motivate himself to leave.

“I probably should go” he says without moving. Dedicated to remember the way the man look back at him.

“Or you can stay, if you want to”

Sam is surprised by his words, not quite sure if Steve means what he thinks he means. He knew having sex with Steve was a possibility, a very, very interesting possibility but was it a wise one when Steve was a kind of cop (even if it was behind a desk)? But at the same time, it’s the first time he connects with someone like that in years and he wants it. He wants to be a part of Steve life.

“I don’t think I could handle being next to you any longer and keep my hands to myself if you look at me like that so…” he gets up, already looking for his coat when Steve comes behind him and takes him in his arms. His mouth on the back of his head.

“Stay” he simply says.

The moment he makes Sam face him and kiss him, they lost themselves. It starts slow, until a hand starts touching the skin a shirt left exposed. After that, they want more contact. More skin and too much clothes, they are just thrown all around on their way to Steve’s bed. When Sam pushes him on it and grab his boxer to remove it, he stops to take the time to admire him fully. “So beautiful” he thinks, before kissing his way from his mouth to his neck and to his neck to his chest, then to his chest to that throbbing part. He kisses the tip, give it small licks before taking it in his mouth and sucking as much as he can without it actually hitting his throat.

If Steve tries to be discreet as first, his moans finally escape his mouth, his hands falling to cover it. He decides to make a better use of it and make Sam go on the bed too before turning him so that he is above him in a sixty nine. Sam gets with the program quickly, but he still surprised when his dick escape Steve’s mouth and the man position him to lick lower on his body.

“Oh fuck” he gasps as Steve bit his ass and spread his cheeks without any kind of hesitation. Here he is moaning on Steve’s dick as is ass gets literally tongue fucked. He is pretty sure he is quite tight so how can he feels Steve’s inside of him is a mystery but he is going to give as good as he gets and works so well that Steve tries two times to escape his mouth.

“Don’t make me cum, we are not done yet” he says, flipping Sam on the bed and kissing him in the filthiest way Sam has ever done.

“Maybe that would be the time to tell you that I’m not that experienced on the receiving end so…”

Steve blinks then nods slowly. If Sam was a little scared (Steve isn’t exactly a small size down there) the way he is prepared during the next five minutes makes him wants to sit on Steve himself.

That’s exactly what he does, exchanging place with the blond, putting the condom on and position himself. Steve looks at him with such intensity he can’t hold his gaze.

“You okay?” Steve asks when Sam manages to get him all in, his breathe loud in the silence of the bedroom.

“Well, I guess. I mean…that’s an experience, definitely”

“We don’t have to, you know? Or you can do me if you prefer”

At that Sam looks at Steve who just smirk.

“Oh, that’s how it is?” he says before starting to move, up and down, front to back then Steve starts to move too and everything is actually kind of fine and dandy, until Steve make him kiss him, then put is strong arms around him to pin him against his own body and decide to fuck him into oblivion.

Sam is ashamed at the sounds that escape him “Just you wait” he manages to say against Steve neck, not actually making the man slow down one bit. Then Steve lets him take control back and Sam starts stroking himself at the same time.

“I’m gonna-”

“Yeah, yeah baby, come for me” Steve answers, his thrusts more slow but stronger. He can feel Sam tightening around him and his cum flying everywhere.

“Oh shit, sorry” he says in between the orgasmic waves. It’s all it take for Steve to come too, so deep in Sam his dick harden one more time and leak a little.

Steve finds Sam beautiful, but here, in his post orgasm glow, still around him, damn, the man is breathtaking.

“Shower?” he proposes.

They end up having a round two in it.

 

“Steve and Sam, sitting under a tree K-I-S-”

“Scott, come on, we’re on our work place. This is not a time for that kind of joke” Steve cuts, turning to Nebula, thinking she would agree instead of what she continues:

“S-I-N-G” in a sing song voice. Steve groans and she laughs “Come on Rogers, you got the boy, we are actually happy for you, you know?”

Steve tries to hide his blush but he is happy and the fact that Scott and Nebula are supportive of them is a big deal because Nebula hadn’t been supportive of a lot of Steve’s relationship and until recently, Scott wasn’t in the know of Steve bisexuality.

They just have finished another training session and evaluated some new tactics against their enemy. Steve had received a message from Sam and Scott had seen the name pop up on his phone.

“Yeah, yeah, he is awesome. I’m a lucky guy” he admits. He immediately thinks about his best friend and what he would say about Sam. He wonders if they would get along or not. Probably. They would team up against him he is sure.

They are joined by Fury and Jarvis who came in the training room with a grim look.

“We have the signal of two Gangler. One of them is Brez Arenishka. We were looking for him for some times already but he always managed to escape somehow. He has electrokinesis so take that in mind if you have to go hand combat on him” Fury informs them while Jarvis shows a blurry picture of the monster and one a little clearer in human form.

“And the second one?” Nebula ask.

Fury pauses, his eye darting on each of them before sitting on Steve.

“We believe he is an extremely dangerous Gangler. We don’t know if it’s the power of his piece but…He may be the one responsible for all those mass attack. He may be the one responsible for more than a thousand people, maybe two, all with the same modus operandi”

“The Ice monster” Scott understands, anger just behind his voice.

“Exactly. Do not engage”

They protest, of course they do but Fury cut them “He, like Hela, seems to be a general for the true responsible of all of this. We are not powerful enough to take him down so we need to be extremely careful. If he can freeze you, you are lost. Do you understand?”

Reluctantly, they agree. If even Fury is scared, they can’t treat his threat lightly. The idea of letting him walk around make them sick, but they need to be smarter if they want to defeat him.

“If the Lupinrangers appears, what do we do?” Scott ask, clearly picturing a lot of ways this could go wrong.

Fury thinks about it then decide “It’s your call Captain” before signaling that they need to go now.

 

It’s not that they would like for the Patrangers to come quickly but it would actually be nice to have THEM help the civilian while hey take the collection piece from that Gangler. Brez Arenishka, he calls himself, some sort of mix between a rooster and a reindeer. He doesn’t hesitate to lash at everyone in sight.

“Usually she appears only when we have destroyed the monster” Blue says, pointing at Hella walking away from the scene.

“Yeah, and usually she just teleport” Yellow analyze.

Finally, the Pat team arrives. This is their chance.

“Blue, Yellow, you take care of the piece. I’m following her”

“Don’t do anything stupid” Blue tells him before jumping from the roof, Yellow on her tail.

He walks slowly, keeping an eye on her. She stops in the lobby of a building and talks to someone. He can’t exactly tell, long brown hair, broad shoulders. If only he could turn just a little…And he does finally. Sam can properly look at his profile.

He feels like he should know that face.

Hela disappears, leaving the man here.

“Ae you going to pretend to stay hidden?” the man ask.

Sam walks enough to face him but at a good distance, just in case. The man must be in his mid to late twenty. Eyes an electric blue, like lightened from inside. As blue as…he jump away from an ice blast, not enough for his cape to not get hit, he throws it on the ground quickly.

Ice.

“Long time no see” the man say like an old friend.

“So it’s you? The one who killed all those people?” he manages to say before his furor can’t be contained.

“Killed?” he repeats before laughing. Sam isn’t amused at all. He gets his VS changer and blast the man who jumps clumsily to avoid it. “Hey, this isn’t very nice of you”

Sam doesn’t wait. This is the monster responsible for all of their loss. He looks…different from the majority of the other Gangler’s human form and Sam is sure he already saw that face somewhere, he just can’t place it.

They fight. Even in his human form, the man is dangerous but Sam starts to get the upper hand. The second he throws the man on the ground however and sees Pat Red looking at them, he feels weird.

“Help” the man implore to Pat Red and Sam knows. He knows something isn’t right because Pat Red doesn’t hesitate to fore at him, hitting him to time and sending him roll away. He even has the audacity to come in front of the man to protect him with his body.

“Stand down” he growls, more angry than ever.

“What the hell man?! This is the bad guy!” Sam indignantly says pointing to the Gangler and when he sees the man finally take is monstrous form, he can only fire back at Pat Red leg to make him fall and avoid to be actually hit by the monster.

He turns, and seems in shock to see the monster. He still look like a man but a different one, his face is slimmer and nose pointier. His skin is blue with withe marks and his eyes are glowing with more intensity even. He seems to wear an ice fedora and a whole cowboy aesthetic. Ice starts to spread on the floor from him to them.

“We need to go” he presses PatRed who is still looking at it without moving. When it becomes clear the man is too stun to do anything, Sam gets up and drag him away, using a smoke bomb to escape. Only then, PatRed starts moving again, following Sam toward the others, to see Blue and Yellow on the ground and no Gangler in sight. The place where the other monster was before is obvious thanks to the burnt zone. With the stance of PatPink and Green, weapon in hand, he can deduce they did the final blow.

“BLUE! YELLOW!” he shouts and they look at him without a word. «What is happening?” he wonders but there isn’t a lot of time to think, the Ice-man had followed them.

“Hi, my name is Loki, just want to introduce myself. I think we will see a lot more of each other soon. Reds.” And with that, he open a portal and disappear, leaving the two teams there.

Sam walks to his teammates and realize that something is wrong however they can’t stay here and it’s even more apparent when PatPink decides to say “You’re all under arrest”

“Oh SHUT UP” Yellow screams and everyone goes silent because even if they don’t know who is under the suit, her snapping feels wrong.

Sam grabs her, makes sure Blue follows and leave without a glance to the other team.

 

They are back at the Bistrot, it’s already open so some clients are sitting here and there, enjoying a fresh drink of some French fries. Peter is in the kitchen and Wanda running between the bar and the service. They look relieves to see them back but with their look they immediately understand that something is wrong.

Sam, Mantis and Shuri goes to the back, where they can talk freely.

“They destroyed the monster before we could open the safe” Shuri admits and the implication isn’t lost on Sam.

“What now?” he asks, more by reflex than because he didn’t understand.

 They don’t repeat anyway and tears start falling from Shuri’s eyes.

“It’s over, we will never be able to complete the collection” Mantis says, looking at the ceiling and, without a doubt, thinking about the one she lost.

“No…No, I refuse that. It can’t be possible. We can’t lose like that. We can’t”

It feels like it.

What hope do they have now? He thinks of Riley, how he just shattered in front of his eyes. How he couldn’t do anything and just walked out to find some help. Help to do what? He didn’t know, but he needed it. And then…and then that man…Loki?

“Oh fuck” he starts to laugh, feeling like he has been played by the universe “Loki, the Gangler you saw at the end, he is our Ice man. His human form…I saw it before. Right after the attack…I talked to him. I didn’t knew back then, I just asked for help. I had him under my hands” he realizes, making the two women look at him with interest.

“That thing is the one that killed everybody?” Shuri asks to be sure and Sam nods. She starts looking at her hands, her eyes going from left to right quickly as she takes in the information. “What if killing him can bring them back somehow?”

What if?

“Shuri- they are gone. The destruction they bring doesn’t magically disappears once we defeat them”

“So what about the one transforming people in dolls Mantis? Or the one who animated all those sculptures? They didn’t stay like that”

Mantis doesn’t add anything, she doesn’t want to gets her hopes up when they are talking about thousands of people. She understands why Shuri thinks like that but in the end, what if they are not coming back?

“He is too powerful for us three, that’s for sure. He was able to go toe to toe with me still in human form. Besides, When Red saw him, he started protecting him and attacking me” Sam reveals, before continuing under the shocked look of his friends “But then, the Gangler changed and he just stayed here, like…I don’t know,  maybe he was surprised? I should have let his ass get frozen”

“You think he knows him? What if he is secretly working with them?” Shuri proposes and the very idea is frightening. Loki did seemed oddly familiar with them but he was so sure Pat Red and the others where kind of the good guys…Them working with the Gangler was revolting.

“I don’t know yet. But there’s something about that specific Gangler that don’t seems right. They never looked that humanoid before when they changed, he is like Hela in a sense”

Sam wonders if he should “talk” to PatRed. Between his reaction and the destruction on the collection piece, maybe his team needs to know if they are friends or foe.

 


	3. Chapter 3

 “Did you knew?”

“Sort of. We actually know very little about Mister Barnes implication with the Gangler”

Steve was stoic but he was radiating anger. Nebula and Scott on his side not daring intervene between him and Fury.

“The “disappearance” of James Barnes precede the apparition of Loki by three days. It was highly suspected that Loki used a human form to hide after his attacks in broad daylight” Jarvis says.

“We are not sure if it’s just a disguise or if Barnes is somehow in there” Fury adds calmly “All of the Gangler we met beside him have a totally fake human form based on a mix of several people”

“You cannot just hide that kind of information. Not for so long. Not when he is one of us at not when you know he is my friend” he says, trying to keep his voice in check.

“I understand that you’re upset but now that you know about it, can you guarantee that you are not going to chase him? How did you even manage to escape him?” Fury asks.

Steve eyes looks at the window for a few seconds.

“LupinRed saved me, he dragged me away, but if I knew then what I know now, I would have been prepared and not my back against a wall”

“No matter the reason why that Gangler looks like your lost best friend it will be bad. Truly, I hope this is him being manipulated because if they can just randomly take the appearance of dead people, we will have a much harder time dealing with them. Especially if people recognize their face and tries to defend them”

Fury doesn’t know that this is exactly what happened with Steve. While the blond looks away, he isn’t sure he feels bad about his own reaction yet. After all, a lot of people would react the same way and it’s not like the Lupinrangers were working with them.

The meeting end and he tries to call Sam but can’t get a hold on him. He doesn’t have the time to go to the Bistrot Jurer, too focused on trying to find Loki again.

 

The next time they got a call for a Gangler attack, he feels disappointed by his absence however he doesn’t have the occasion to think about it too much because they very much need to get out of the way of the Lupinrangers.

They never been this aggressive and at the end of the battle, he has some nasty bruise even his suit couldn’t protect him from. Usually they can exchange at least some words with them but not this time. This time, they acted with them as they act with the Gangler. Scott had been caught between two powerful attacks and needed medical attention.

The second time the story repeated, they started calling out the other team, wondering what was wrong with them.

By the third time, it was getting to them. They wanted to know what their problem was but they simply didn’t talk. Steve felt his tension rise and it wasn’t helping that somehow, he hadn’t been able to spend quality time with Sam since the night he came at his apartment.

“Maybe the sex was bad and it’s his way to dump you?” Nebula joked.

Steve let his fork fall on the table, the sound muffled by the tablecloth. He wasn’t amused by her supposition at all but at the same time, how could we never be sure?

“You should just go talk to him” Scott said, feeling bad for his friend. Since he didn’t knew Sam that well, he couldn’t pretend the guy would never do that. Finally, he didn’t even have to call Sam, his boyfriend send him a text with “wyd 2night?” and he immediately felt better.

 When Steve arrived at Sam’s apartment, he checked himself twice before knocking. He had seen Sam at the Bistrot but it was the first time they really had a moment to themselves since they slept together. When Sam opens the door, he presents a bottle of wine immediately. Sam looks tired but he smiles anyway and kiss his cheek in an intimate move.

He gives shim a tour of his apartment and Steve questions him about three of four things. Near the TV, a pictures of Sam with a blond man captures his attention. They are next to each other, the blond making a peace sign while Sam smiles softly. Considering the other pictures looks more like family, Steve deduce easily that it must be Riley. 

“It was taken five or six years ago. His flight had been cancelled for Christmas so he came at my mother’s house. They love him, but he was scared of my sister for some reason. Ha, it was fun” Sam remembers fondly before his face darken noticeably.

“You ok?” Steve asks knowing well that this isn’t the case.

“Sorry, I…lately I have been preoccupied…” Sam stops, he said too much. He wanted to talk to Steve, he wanted him around, but he couldn’t explain why he felt that way and he had his back to the wall. How could he make this relationship work if he couldn’t be honest?

“You want to talk about it?” Sam shakes his head, put the picture back near the TV and takes Steve in his arms. The blond smells like amber and vanilla.

“I like being with you Steve” Sam offers with honesty, his head still hidden in Steve neck. The blond holds him tighter.

“Me too babe. You can talk to me about anything, you know that right?”

“Yeah…I’ll do it, not now but I’ll do it I promise” Sam answers, letting some of his tension leave his body. Something about Steve makes him believe that the man honestly wants to know. If Steve wasn’t working with the Police, maybe he would have told him…no, he can’t think like that. He can’t just say something like that, after all, he isn’t the only one concerned.

They change the topic after that, watch a movie and eat. Sam is feeling better and having Steve’s body against his own is making is mind more focused.

Sometimes before the end of the third episode of a cooking show they were watching, they start making out. It’s soft at first, gentle, without any rush.It doesn’t last.There’s a hunger waking up quickly, a moan, a touch, then an open shirt and a hand stoking a boxer. Steve, one hand on Sam’s cheek, the other on the back of the couch, tries to control his body as a mouth takes him inside. Sam doesn’t let him do anything, a hand keeping him in place while he kiss and lick and suck from Steve’s tights, to his abs and, of course, his throbbing dick. Steve starts feeling saliva running down to his balls and his perineum. He didn’t know he liked it a little messy. Then Sam’s finger starts playing with his balls, then lower. Steve is so excited, and his entrance so wet from Sam’s saliva than the finger enter rather easily. Steve breathe harder, after only forty seconds of that treatment he calls his lover

“Sam…please”.

So Sam gets up, his pants are still on but open, his cock fiercely pointing, his shirt an item long forgotten.He walks casually toward his bedroom as if he wasn’t about to get condom and lube before coming back, eyes casting promises of pleasure. Clothes aren’t even all removed when Sam enters Steve. He simply pass himself between his legs, his jeans behind his head at that point. His shirt open until the higher button.

It should be uncomfortable on the couch but Steve can’t think and just tries to give his body and soul to the situation. They change position after that, Steve on his knees, head above the top on the couch, exposing his ass in a way he never quite done before. He spreads his cheeks, waiting for Sam to fuck him again. He does. Slow, then faster, until his balls tap his ass each time. Sam gets closer, wanting to kiss his ear and cheek and Steve has to bite the poor furniture to muffle his moans. He can feel when Sam is about to come. The moves are more chaotic, more powerful and the sound Sam makes against his skin added to the feeling of his dick pulsating inside of him makes Steve roll his eyes.

He feels strangely empty when Sam gets out but it’s only to make him sit and suck him again, that time, getting two fingers inside and purposely trying to make him cum.Steve is happy to follow the idea, surprised when Sam decides to swallow him. The stimulation is too much and he tries to escape but Sam as others plans and he can’t control his body squirming away till he falls from the couch.They laugh.

“You tried to kill me” he jokingly accuse, hiding his martyred penis. Sam doesn’t look apologetic at all, standing with his pants down his legs, getting the condom out and putting it in a paper. Damn, Steve looks at his penis, tip glistening with cum and faster than Sam can comprehend, Steve mouth is on it, licking to get the last of it.

“Stop, you’re going to make me hard again” Steve cock an eyebrow. It’s a question and a dare making Sam laugh again. 

They are in Sam bed, it’s around 1am and he is feeling so good, Steve head on his chest, his body against his own. He feels relaxed. It doesn’t last as Steve’s phone start ringing and they groan.Steve gets up, a frown on his face. Sam is immediately worried, he can feel the tension in his body immediately as he walk in the living room, looking for his phone casting light on the table.

“Rogers- Where?-I’ll meet you there- yeah thanks” he says before quickly looking for his clothes.

“Everything’s okay?”

“Yeah, go back to sleep, I need to go, it’s for work. I’m sorry, really, it’s important”

“Okay, don’t worry” Sam answers with a smile. He helps Steve getting ready and just as he kiss him goodbye, his own phone starts vibrating on the floor.

Suspiciously he answers, Steve giving him an interrogation look. The text is a code for a Gangler attack. He looks at Steve. An emergency? Right now? It can’t be a coincidence.

“Steve, go, call me later okay?” he says, trying to reassure Steve.

The blond man nods, gives him another quick peck and leaves. Sam runs to get some clothes on and meet the others. Thanks to his vehicle, he is quickly there, Shuri and Mantis by his side on the roof of a small building, trying to assess the situation.

“Is that Steve?” Mantis points and surely, right under them, someone just got down his motorcycle and without his helmet he sure does look like Steve. A black van arrive five minutes later, the Gangler already creating a panic movement. Out of the van, two figures comes closes to Steve.

“What the hell?” Sam chokes, recognizing Scott and Nebula.

“Are they part of the clean-up team?” Mantis proposes, her voice betraying her anxiety.

“No. No-noooo” starts lamenting Shuri as Scott gives something to Steve and they walk toward the Gangler.

Sam’s body reacts by instinct, he jumps from the roof, transform mi air and run to meet them. He knows Shuri and Mantis are right behind him but they aren’t quick enough.

_Police!_

_PatRan One_

_PatRan Two_

_PatRan Three_

A flash.

Sam, Shuri and Mantis stopped dead in their track.

“What do we do?” Shuri asks “Red? Red!”

 

It had been a tough fight. Shuri was the only one as focused as usual and even if they did end up with the collection piece, she didn’t hold back when they were back at the Bistrot.

“It isn’t enough that you’re sleeping with the enemy, you have to let them destroy another collection piece too?”

“Shuri, I think what you don’t understand-” Mantis started, only to be cut by her friend.

“No, what I understand is that we have a mission and it’s more important than the rest. We don’t know if killing Loki will bring everyone back. If it doesn’t work, we NEED the pieces. Sam is supposed to be our leader, he needs to act like one!”

“This is so unfair”

“Yes, it isn’t. That’s our life” she concludes. “So get your head out of your ass, I mean HIS ass, and do it quickly Sam”

She just leaves them here. Sam can’t even stop looking at the floor. He breaks suddenly, letting his body fall on the floor. Mantis comes to him, she is crying too but not as much.

“I’m sorry Sam”

“Why do it have to be them? What are we going to do? I already didn’t want to lie to him but now…And Nebula, Oh Gog Mantis, she’s going to be there so often, are you okay?”

“Whatever we decide, we need to be united on this. Shuri was right, we can’t let that stop us, as painful as it is”

Sam tries to get his emotions in check, whipping his tears away.

“I can’t stay with him” he decides. His heart hurt.

“Maybe there’s another way”

“No, there isn’t. We have been luck Mantis. If they discover we are the Lupinrangers, they’ll come for us. We can’t take that risk. We had them here too much. What if a Gangler had attacked then? No, it’s way too dangerous”

Mantis isn’t convinced but she understands why Sam thinks that way.

“By text thought? Isn’t that a little-”

“If he thinks I’m a coward, it’s good. The less he thinks about me, the better. Not only because he will be less likely to come around here but they won’t suspect a coward to be one of the Lupinrangers” he argues.

So he writes a short text, nothing more than “It isn’t going to work between us, I’m sorry, good luck”.

He isn’t even out of the Bistrot with Mantis than his phone starts to ring. He looks at it with a lump in his throat. Gently, Mantis takes the phone and propose to him to come crash at her place a few days. He wants to say no but looking at her, he understand that this is for her too.

He did get his phone back the morning after. He didn’t dare look at Steve messages and after seeing Wanda and Peter, they quickly came to the conclusion that he should, at least for a week, not work as the barman or waiter. Mantis and him were replaced by Peter and Wanda. They felt better in the kitchen, especially since Steve waited only three days before coming back and asking for him. At first, Peter tried to gently let him know that Sam wasn’t available but then, Shuri decided to step up.

“You are disturbing our clients, please stop” she simply says looking at him in the eyes.

His jaws are clenched and he looks second away to say something that will make them fight. Instead, he takes a deep breath, soften his look.

“I am sorry, could you just tell him that I only want to talk to him? Please?”

It’s written on her face that she wants to say no. Steve doesn’t understand why, he doesn’t know what he did or why she would be that angry at him.

“If I see him, I’ll see what I can do”

Since it’s the best he will get out of it, he doesn’t insist and leave. Shuri did end up telling that to Sam. He looked miserable.

After the second week, Steve stopped going at the Bistrot, but he didn’t stop trying to call Sam. Eventually, Sam just felt so bad that he changed his number and destroyed his sim card to be sure he wouldn’t be tempted to talk to him.

Fighting them after that isn’t easier but Sam is at least able to focus on his mission and not on Steve. That time, GoodStriker is on their side so they use thee LupinKaiser Knight to finish the monster and run away.

They put the collection piece in the book and Mantis actually turns the pages to look the missing pieces while Vision talk to them. She frowns looking at a specific page.

“L’Orage éléctrique” she whispers “The piece we lost” the other stops, listening to her “You know, it’s weird that this is the only Gangler that didn’t actually turn giant. Everyone was brought back by Hela but not him”

Sam feels his heart nearly missing a beat, he exchange a look with Shuri.

“Wait a minute” she says astounded.

“You’ve got to be kidding me” Sam realizes “He wasn’t brought back because he isn’t dead!”

“It can’t be alive, we saw him, he was hit by their attack” Shuri counters.

“He was the only one to not come back Shuri. The only one” Mantis repeats, feeling a new hope bloom inside of her.

“It means he must be hiding somewhere. I can’t believe it. We know his human face, we need to find a way to locate him. He is ours” Sam declares.

 

It’s with a new resolution that they go to work. Peter and Shuri explores a way to hack into the city cameras but with so much footage, they need something to analyze the live feed which isn’t easy at all.

“You know…Actually if we could hack into the GSPO…” Peter starts and when both Wanda and Sam starts shaking their head, he quickly finishes “all we need to do is to use that USB key to charge a program that will attach itself to their surveillance  system and the second he spots our guy, we will know”

“But we don’t actually have a picture of the monster to compare it” Mantis argues.

Peter just tilt his head “Well not now, but when you’ll use this I will  be able to accede their archives so I can find the day you fought him and trace him back to before he was transformed”

“Okay, I am actually impressed” Sam says, giving Peter a proud pat on the shoulder. “Time to make a plan” he announces.

 

The next day, after having successfully hacked the GSPO surveillance system, Sam felt better. Not only could they find the Gangler, he could find Loki when the time was right and destroy him before the Ice Man could see him.

Of course, it was without counting on Nebula entering the Bistrot. Peter did try to intercept her and create a diversion but she was visibly pissed so he couldn’t stop her at all.

“I want to see Sam”

Of course he tried the “He isn’t here” line, but she stepped in his personal space in a way that he felt slapped by her aura only.

“Don’t make me ask again” she says just calm enough to be frightening.

Poor Peter took a step back, then one more before disappearing in the kitchen. Sam thought Steve would come, that’s why he was hiding in the back. He wasn’t prepared for Nebula.

He brings her outside, near the back of the Bistrot. It wasn’t really that discreet but it was the best he could manage right now.

“I didn’t took you for the “piece of shit” type and I’m usually a very good judge of character” she begins “But, once again, all men ain’t shit so…”

“Did you came just to insult me?” he asks, not very sure where this was going.

“You changed your number didn’t you?”

Sam bites his lips. He doesn’t know how to respond at all. How did she even know?

“For months you worked at the bar but suddenly you toss a guy and you’re hiding in the kitchen” she continues “Are you that much of a coward?”

“I am, actually. Now that you told me what you thought, maybe you could just go and I can go back to work?”

He said exactly what he needed to make her angrier. He hoped it was the good strategy to make her leave him alone but it didn’t quite worked.

“If you just wanted to fuck him you should have said so”

“Yeah, I should have” he says, lying easily as long as he keeps repeating for himself that he is doing it for a good reason.

She seems about to break his neck at that point.

“I swear to God I will fight you. Mantis had nothing but good thing to say about you. Now you are telling me you were an asshole all along?”

“Yes, I am. I saw a nice looking dude, I wanted a quick fuck, we got two, it’s over, next” He said with as much assurance he could “I do not care about him, I don’t want to see him again. Of course, you can come here to eat and drink, we love good customers” Sam adds for good measure with a cocky grin.

He is focused on her and he notices how her eyes seems to look at a point behind him. He turns fast and sees Steve looking at him. Sam never felt as bad, low and unworthy as he did now. Steve may have tears falling from his eyes but he looks cold as an iceberg. Nebula passes him, shoving him in the process.

It’s been twenty seconds and Steve just keep looking at him without saying anything. Sam knows he is waiting for him to talk but he can’t trust himself in front of Steve to actually pretend he doesn’t care. A voice in his mind screams “Say the truth, you don’t want to lose him!” but all of his energy is directed toward one thing and one thing only, not breaking in front of his ex-boyfriend.

When it became clear that Sam won’t say anything, something change in Steve. It’s subtle and yet, it makes Sam feels something beyond everything else.

Shame.

He knows why he needed to get Steve away from him. He knows it. It still hurt so damn much. The second Steve turns back to leave, Sam knees threaten to give up. He manages to control himself just long enough for Steve to disappear, after that he is crying on the ground near the Bistrot dumpster.

 

Two days after, they finally find the man they are looking for. Track him is easy after that. When they get to him, he isn’t alone. Brez and Loki (with his human body) are talking about something in a warehouse near Battery Barbour. They wait their moment, knowing that they can’t attack Brez while Loki can intervene and froze them all.

“I’ll buy time, try to get Brez out of here” Sam commands and with that, Shuri and Mantis attack him and pushes him away from Loki while Sam tries his best to dodge the man attacks.

Now isn’t the time to get all out on him, but he needs to have a better understanding at what they are dealing with, especially if  he can froze multiple people at the same time. In his human form, he doesn’t seems to be as powerful. As in his monster form.

“We got it” he hear Shuri say in his helmet.

That’s the moment Loki decides to upgrade himself and take his real appearance. Sam needs to be on the defense way more now, dodging gun blasts after gun blasts and trying to hit him as much as he can.

They are interrupted by the blast of someone else. They both turn to see PatRed standing there and start walking toward them before attacking them both.

It’s a mess, and no one can take the advantage since Sam makes sure to always be in the dead angle of someone. He manages to knock Loki’s gun away.

“We need to attack together” he say to PatRed.

“No, you are not killing him!”

“What the hell? You really are working with them, I knew you couldn’t be trusted”

That little distraction is enough to allowed Loki to get his gun back and fire at Sam. Ice quickly covers his body leaving only his head free.

 

Steve sees, powerless, LupinRed gets hit. Loki laughs at the head, only part outside the ice.

“Oh you really were starting to be a pain in the ass” he aims for a second shoot but Steve goes in his way.

“BUCKY!” he screams, demorphing at the same time.

Sam wants to scream, what was that idiot doing? Wait a minute, did he just said Bucky? He is so sure Steve is going to die right here but Loki freeze for a moment and start to grumbles something, hitting himself with his fists. Steve run toward him until he can touch him and immediately, Loki takes his human form back.

“Steve, I can’t-he is too strong…”

“Bucky, listen to me, I’ll find a way, ok? I’m going to save you, I’m not letting you go!”

“Take him” Bucky/Loki says, pointing at LupinRed “you need to get away now, I won’t hold much”

Before Steve can protest, he is pushed away and Bucky closes his eyes while he shoot at himself, trapping his body in the ice.

Steve can’t help but scream, believing he just witnessed his best friend death except three seconds later, his eyes opens, glowing that unnatural white blue.

 _“I’ll buy you time”_ Bucky had said. He wasn’t going to die like that and he was already wasting time. He blast the ice around LupinRed, grab his body and run away.

By the time they are outside, Brez just got giant. The two other Lupin run toward him with his own team.

“Red?” LupinBlue ask carefully.

“He’s gonna be okay” he says, laying him on the ground where LupinBlue and Yellow quickly check on him. “We have a Gangler to stop”

 

 

Back at the Bistrot Jurer.

“So what? That Gangler is possessing Steve supposedly dead best friend?”

“I don’t know Peter. Seems like it. I mean…I don’t know the specific of his disappearance but he did recognize Steve and it was the reason we were able to escape”

Sam passes a hand on his forehead. He wasn’t sure at first if he should talk about Steve’s best friend but the idea of keeping that kind of information from his team wasn’t a good one.

“You know, I really think I did see him around the time of the attack, is that weird?” Wanda asks, looking at the picture Sam was able to find of Bucky Barnes.

“No, me too, he looked…” Shuri starts, only to have Sam propose “Sad?”

She thinks, then nods.

They realize that indeed, he was always there and it was normal since his other part was responsible for the attacks.

“So what do we do? Do we…kill him?” Mantis asks, finally expressing what linger between them since Sam told them the truth.

“What if somehow, the Gangler is using the dead body of his friend and it’s, in fact, a plan to get to us all? It’s a little too convenient that he has the form of PatRed best friend don’t you think?”  Shuri proposes, trying to think about all of the options.

“We can’t decide something like this just among ourselves” Sam says, shaking his head a little “First of all, we don’t know if destroying the Gangler of taking away his collection piece will bring the people back. Secondly, if there’s a possibility that Barnes is controlled by Loki, we can’t just kill someone at the first occasion. Till now, each time a Gangler was in human form, is was a decoy. It’s different here”

“Sam- Maybe it is time to talk to Steve?” Wanda proposes.

Peter and Shuri doesn’t look too fond of the idea but Mantis agrees “I think we should talk to them. I know Nebula is a little hot headed but if they found out who we are before we can tell them, imagine their reaction? We lied to them. We have to fight them again and again and if we aren’t united, we risk to lose a collection piece for real this time”

“And if they decide to arrest us all?” Shuri asks with a cock eyebrow.

“I think Mantis’s right” Sam finally declares “I’ll talk to Steve but I need you to trust me on this” he says looking at all of them. Mantis agrees immediately, followed by Wanda. Shuri and Peter talks some more about it but decide to accept.

“You sure he is going to listen to you after what you did?” Shuri asks with concern. She hadn’t been the most supportive of their relationship at first but she could see how Sam had been affected by the separation. She knew he was always looking for him when they were working.

Sam takes a deep breathe “I hope so”.


	4. Chapter 4

Sam was in front of the GSPO building trying to calm his nerves. He knew what needed to be done and how to do it to limit the risks of putting his team in danger. If he failed and get arrested, they needed to be able to carry on without him. He made sure Vision understood the situation and would be ready if anything happened to him.

It’s morphed that he walks casually closer to the entrance of the building, people looking at him with curiosity but prudence, letting a vast security perimeter around him and looking for a Gangler just in case.

“PatRangers, could you come out?” he asks loudly. Some agents already outside, guns toward him. He really hopes they doesn’t fire.

He actually doesn’t have to wait for long, Steve, Nebula and Scott comes to him like a well-oiled machine.

“Bringing yourself to justice LupinRed?” Steve demands, his tone unfriendly.

“Not exactly” he answers, quickly using his Dial Fighter to get in the jet before anyone can fire at him and flying away.

They are following him as expected and he feels a certain relief when they don’t fire at him either. He gets them on Great Kills Beach, if he needs to escape, he will be able to cross over to Crescent Beach Park easily where they wouldn't be able to catch him.

He gets out of his vehicle, in a spot with nobody around them and wait for the PatRangers to join him. It’s too early for families to be there already but the two joggers running toward the same spot decided otherwise when they saw the mechas coming and the Rangers out of them. Pink and Green are ready to fire but Red, in the middle just stay here, waiting like Steve waited for him to say something after that horrible conversation with Nebula.

He demorphs.

The wind hit him suddenly. The silence is killing him. Scott turns his head toward Steve, then him, then Steve again. Nebula, if anything, got her weapon even more ready. Steve…Steve doesn’t move for a few seconds but it seems painfully long.

“I should arrest you right now and make sure you end up in prison” he finally says.

“I am not here to fight, I am here to help”

“Help?” Steve repeats, incredulous, demorphing all of a sudden.  “By lying? And stealing? And using me?”

Sam forces himself not to take his eyes away from Steve “I am sorry”

“Where and who are the others?” Nebula asks, handcuffs rolling in her free palm.

“I can’t tell you that”

Steve is so quickly close enough to touch him that Sam almost takes a step back “What do you want?” he asks in a way that could easily be used with “I want you to rot in hell”.

“We want to understand exactly the situation with Bucky and Loki. See if we can help. Maybe there’s a way for all of us to work together”

Nebula starts laughing behind Steve.

“I can’t trust you” Steve simply states. Sam knew that already anyway.

“Maybe you can’t. But I trust you. This isn’t about us Steve, this is about your friends and the people he may have killed”

“HE didn’t do anything. Loki is the killer, not Bucky" he says, not doing a great job at hidding his agacement "What guarantee do we have that this isn’t just another of your plans? I can’t believe you were right under my nose, that we…”

“You will have all the time in the world to hate me as much as you want Steve, as I said, I am not here to fight, one way or another, Loki will pay. So either we all find a way for Barnes to not be a collateral damage or he will pay too. I am risking everything my team and I are fighting for to avoid actually killing someone who may be innocent, so are you in or not?”

Steve looks even angrier than before, with is surprising to Sam but it’s too late now.

“Scott?” he asks.

“Following you Chef”

“Neb?”

“Can’t we just put him in prison and interrogate him until he tells us everything he knows?”

“We could” Steve says, looking at Sam in a strange way that makes his heart beat louder in his chest. Now is not the time to want Steve body against his.

Steve thinks about it then shows his palm. “I want your VS changer. We obviously can’t let you go around freely so you’ll be stuck with me until we decide what to do. If you lie again or try to escape, I won’t hesitate. I am giving you one chance, there won’t be a second. Are we good?”

“Yes Captain” Sam answers, giving him his changer and crossing his fingers he won’t regret it, which he does right after that, because Steve actually gives it to Nebula. It seems to be a good compromise for her.

 

They go back to the GSPO and Sam meets Jarvis and Director Fury. This isn’t really pleasant.

“I already told you, I won’t talk about my team. You don’t want me to lie, fine, but I won’t put them in danger either” Sam says when they, once again ask him about the LupinRangers.

There’s a lot Sam won’t talk about, meaning, there’s a lot of frustration building up between them. Steve doesn’t say anything, letting the rest of the team do the talking. Only when Sam manages to redirect the conversation toward Loki, Steve start speaking again to give some context. Barnes and him are childhood friend and he was starting the program to actually be a member of the PatRangers except during one of his missions, he disappeared and the GSPO reported him as dead. Slight problem, he may not have been and Sam was now in an awkward position because Fury hadn’t told everything about that mission to Steve either so when he says “He was investigating the Interdimensional Crime Group Gangler, but as their name say, they are interdimensional and during one on his mission he fall into what was assumed to be a dimensional rift, which should have killed him. So when someone with his face started walking around, we guessed it wasn’t him anymore and tried to arrest him. Everybody we sent ended up dead”

Sam can’t help but notice how tense Steve is. He is so concerned that he doesn’t think much  when his hand takes Steve’s and he starts passing his thumb over his knuckles in a gesture supposed to be soothing.

Here, in the middle of Director Fury’s office, he takes the hand of his ex-boyfriend, who hates him, next to his colleagues, who hates him too, not even thinking about the fact that Steve may not be out to Fury. The realization hit him violently. He stop moving, eyes wild open, looking at the others with a gaping mouth. He takes his hand back. Steve is blushing but he may be because of anger more than anything. How can he be that stupid?

“Sorry, I’m truly sorry. So, uh…you think he is possessed or something like that? Or is it like the decoy the Gangler usually use?” he asks, trying to control his voice without success and ended up sounding like he was a teenager again.

“Well, Rogers did tell us that during your last encounter, Barnes reacted to him so we can’t be sure” He turns his eye to Steve “We are trusting your judgment on this. Barnes was…is one of us so if there’s a chance to get him back, we are taking it but we don’t want to risk your life. Understood?”

“Yes director” Steve says.

“I believe you are taking care of our guest?”

“I won’t leave his side until we have Bucky back” Steve answers.

Sam shivers because somehow, he feels like he means it. This isn’t what he had in mind but it could be worse. Well, that’s what he tries to say to himself when they escort him to Steve’s car and they start driving, Nebula and Scott on the backseat.

 

He is back in Steve’s apartment and it hurt to be here in those circumstances. He tries to be as discreet as possible, sitting down on the couch and just looking at his hands in his lap while Nebula and Scott are arguing with Steve.

“We shouldn’t let you alone with him” Scott tries.

“He already betrayed you once, this is really a bad idea” Nabula adds.

“He is my responsibility. I’ll make sure he behave” he says as much to them than it is to Sam.

After some negotiation, Scott and Nebula reluctantly leaves. Sam feels like he can breathe more easily.

“Do I have to handcuff you to be sure you are not going away?”

“Is this a kink of yours?” he answers with a cocky grin.

Wrong answer.

“Let me be perfectly clear, Sam, this is not a game, I won’t let anything nor anyone stop me from having my best friend back, not even you. So if you think you can play, I’ll toss your ass in jail. Am I making myself clear?”

Sam nods, falling silent. He can handle this better, if he manages not to let his pride get in the way.

“I am sorry”

“Shut up Sam”

“Steve, please I-”

“No. You don’t get to talk now. I have waited for you to talk before and when you finally did-” he stops, bites his lower lips “we get Bucky Back and after that, I won’t have to care about you”

He deserves that he thinks, the anger, the pettiness. He doesn’t want to let things like that but he won’t push Steve farther away. So he forces himself to keep his head down and his mouth shut for the rest of the evening.  Steve is looking at some files, he only hear his voice in what feels like hours when he orders some food. Sam uses the table, Steve is against the door.

“I am going to take a shower, then it’s your turn. I won’t shower curtains open to make sure to keep an eye on you so don’t move”

“Too bad, that could be interesting”

Sam had two seconds to regret saying that. For some reason, he couldn’t let Steve act like his boss. However, he choose to be in that situation yet here he was forgetting he was a “prisoner”

“Don’t be a smartass now Wilson”

“You won’t even let me explain myself”

“You’re so selfish. You just do anything you want when you want to do it and fuck the rest right?”

Sam is shocked, this isn’t what he does- is it? The only reason he broke up with Steve is because he didn’t want to lie to him and put them both in danger. Well, he did end up lying to him some more, and cut ties with him. But it’s only when he decided to know if they could help Bucky that he brought himself to Steve. He replays the events in his head, then he tries to adopt Steve point of view.

This is bad. He wouldn’t even trust himself.

So he stops. Makes the conscious decision to stop prioritizing his own feelings and does what Steve wants for now (which is staying put and stop talking). They do sleep in Steve’s bedroom, him on the bed and Steve on the floor against the door, putting some bell against the window just in case.

They don't even say goodnight, just tries to let the sleep wash over him. The proximity is suffocating, the tension too and he has to keep his arms against himself to remember that he has lost every right to come to Steve and touch him. He thought it was the best solution at the time and he almost wishes what he had said to Nebula was true, that he didn’t care about him. But I’s beyond physical attraction now, he has feelings for Steve.

He has feelings for Steve Rogers. He is in love with him.

The thought makes him want to cry, he can’t help but sit on the bed slowly and look at the man on the ground. He should have done things differently. He had been selfish, it was true.

When he lays again on the bed, he tries to concentrate on the goal of his team. Can he do that and make things with Steve better at the same time?

 

They wake up in silence, Steve goes to make coffee and Sam follows him. Since he actually fallen asleep late, his mind isn’t that sharp. He gets close enough to put his head on Steve shoulder from behind while he uses his machine. Steve stops in his movement and it takes way too long to Sam to notices something is wrong as he was ready to doze off on his feet.

He takes a step back, then a second, excusing himself, suddenly really awake and mortified.

“Don’t do that again” Steve warns, eyes still on the hot pot of coffee and body tense.

“I know, I’m sorry”

Something dark is on Steve face when he turns to look at Sam.

“Are you? I wonder if you are just trying to fuck with me”

No matter what “fuck with me” is supposed to mean, Sam doesn’t like the implication. His patience is running low and it’s like Steve makes him less in control. This isn’t good.

“If I wanted to fuck you, I could” he states matter of fact. Sam remembers he was supposed to make things better. It's not a good start.

Steve’s eye twitch.

“I don’t think so”

“I’ll let your ego survive one more day and not prove my point but you and me both know I could have you right now” Sam says with the cockiest smile he could give because his good resolution are thrown without consideration as soon as Steve Rogers come into play.

“Bullshit Wilson!”

Sam, who was ready to let go turns on his heels, walk toward Steve the three steps separating them. Steve tries to stop him, put his hand on his chest but Sam, grabs it and takes it away. Steve pushes him then, anger all over his face. Sam does the same making Steve’s back hit the coffee machine.

Steve notices it, pushes Sam harder this time and they start to fight. Without any technique, just fists, push and pull. They block, dodge, and punch until Steve is against the wall, one hand on Sam hip, the other almost on his throat. Sam pushes his body in his space, the hand half still trying to keep him at bay. His face closer to Steve’s, until their lips are almost touching.

“You were saying?” he asks, using his tight to push against Steve crotch.

Steve uses all of his body to exchange their position, his forearm across Sam’s torso.

 “Don’t get it twisted Sam, I’m the one who is going to fuck you”

Steve’s mouth is on Sam’s and it almost hurt. Steve is still blocking him with his arm until he yanked his t shirt away. He feels at Steve’s mercy as the man drags his teeth from his neck to his abs and turn Sam, face pressing against the wall.

“Fuck” he lets escape when he feels Steve’s face against his cheeks.

“That’s the concept” he hears him say against his naked ass, his boxer not even fully down, his hard cock trapped inside. He doesn’t even try to escape when he feels the wet tongue poking at his entrance, just push is ass back. More, he wants more. His eyes are rolling. It’s not tender, not even when Steve gets up, kissing his back and bites his neck. Sam can feel Steve’s length against his ass and here he is, moving along. How can their body fit so well? The second after, his back is against the wall, Steve is panting in front of him. They look at each other, chest heavy. Slowly his hand comes to Steve face, bringing him in a kiss different that the last one.  The kind of kiss you don’t give someone you hate, someone you don’t care about. In Steve’s arm, Sam feels insignificant and powerful all at once.

This is where he is meant to be.

They break the kiss, looking at each other again. When Steve’s phone ring, it’s a relief as much as it’s a bother. They break eye contact just long enough for Steve to get his phone in hand, after that, Sam is still against the wall, half naked, boxer barely hiding his dick.

“We need to go” Steve announce, Sam nods.

 

“Are you giving me my changer back?” he asks as Steve is going out of the GSPO van, Nebula and Scott are already outside and there’s two other agents still in the vehicle.

“No, we got this”

“It would have been too god to be true” he mutters, still getting outside just to keep an eye on them.

The Gangler is powerful and he can see his team trying to get to the safe but always being interrupted by PatGreen or Pink. He look at the ground, spots two middle size rocks wait for the good moment and throw one at Pat Green when he was about to stop Shuri and the second one at the Gangler head (capturing his attention) right after, allowing Shuri to get the collection piece. She makes a small hand wave to him before escaping with Mantis.

“You couldn’t stay out of it?” Steve asks annoyed. Sam just shrugs, pointing that he should keep his focus on the monster instead of him. That one is tougher than he looks and the PatRangers doesn’t have a lot of choice before fuse to get rid of him. Of course, Hela appears out of nowhere and make him giant.

 

Sam didn’t expect having to follow Steve all day long in his typical workday. Not that it was boring, it really wasn’t, but he never thought too much about the GSPO. Of course, they didn’t let him in the important and secret information and meeting but still, it was informative to witness. He tried to be as discreet as possible, not saying much unless prompted. After the battle, he had an idea on how to help Barnes but it was still a gamble on what the relationship between Barnes and Loki truly was (how could they be sure Barnes was still whole and alive?) and if Steve could trust him enough to allow him to do what needed to be done in the first place.

He waits for Steve and him to be back to his place in the evening before sharing his idea.

“So, uh, about Barnes and Loki” he starts, letting Steve close the files he had open on the living room table.

“Yeah?”

“I- I don’t want to get your hopes up, but I think I have some ideas to explore”

“What’s the catch?” Steve asks. 

“I need twenty four hours alone, and by that I mean not here and not followed and-”

“You are already asking too much Sam” he cuts laughing openly.

“I need your VS Changer”

“Mmmh what did you say?” Steve asks with a big smile and head tilted a little just enough for Sam to understand the real question “Are you completely nuts?”

“I said, I need to go do my thing with your VS Changer. I’ll be back right after”

Steve looks at Sam from his chair with the same smile, crossing his arms behind his head.

“You really can’t be serious”

“Here’s the thing, you don’t have that many options. If I don’t return to my team soon, they have instructions and it won’t go in your way, you really didn’t think that I would come to you without a backup plan do you?”

Steve became so serious in a flash, Sam feels his pulse racing.

“You really are the worst”

“No, I protect my team and our goal. We don’t want to be the enemy but Loki has to die. I really don’t want to sacrifice an innocent live for that either so you have to understand what it happening here”

“You are asking me to trust you enough to give you my weapon and let you go without any guarantee that you will be back and with the knowledge that you are a liar and a thief” Steve recaps, annoyed.

“Don’t let your personal feelings get in the way of what’s need to be done Steve”

“You really have some nerves-”

Sam, just to be a little shit take the first thing at hand, a glass full of water, then throw it at Steve. While he catches it, it give Sam the opportunity to come close enough to take Steve’s changer, only to have the whole table push against him and Steve jump on it then on him. They stumble back against the couch and falls, Steve tries to use his legs to block Sam but in the process he ends up sitting on Sam, face close to his as he tries to reach for the hand with the changer in it.

Sam can’t help but feel a wave of sadness.

“Stop, please stop” he says, letting Steve take back his weapon while he squirm away from him. “Man, this is so fucked up”

“Then why are you acting like that Sam? Why are you making everything so difficult? It’s like you purposely tries to be on my bad side” Steve stops himself, his eyes looking nowhere as he thinks about his next words. He gives a few glances at Sam, frowns, gets up too, and comes right in front of him, not touching him but still in his space. “Since when do you know I’m a PatRanger exactly?”

Sam tries to dodge the question entirely and it’s not discreet in the least. He doesn't like where this is going.

“I really think I can help, if I don’t have anything substantial by tomorrow-”

“SAM!” Steve almost shout, not angry but commanding. “Since when?”

“I don’t want to answer that question, I don’t want to lie to you again so don’t make me” Sam stubbornly say, not moving away from Steve.

“Okay, so tell to my face what you said to Nebula that day. Tell me you only wanted a fuck and never cared”

Sam can’t help but looking away, he only wanted to get Nebula off his back. He was ready to say anything and it was easy because he knew he could never say that in front of Steve.

“Maybe I don’t do well with confrontation and I’m a coward who can’t take responsibility for his words, what about that?”

Steve gives him an unimpressed look, shaking his head.

“It’s funny, you know, I believed it. I believed it immediately because I was insecure about our relationship. You broke off by text and went to great length to avoid me. Why would you avoid me if you truly didn’t care? And here you are, not answering and deflecting. You know I have interrogation techniques right? I can see right thought your bullshit now and you are not a coward by any means”

“So why are you asking me stupid questions Rogers?” Sam snaps “I said what I said, we don’t need to go back to that, it doesn’t change anything” Sam throws away words, not caring if it makes sense or not. He truly doesn’t know why he is acting like an idiot when he wanted the opportunity to come clean and is obviously wasting it.

“I am going to kiss you Sam” Steve says, not even demanding, a warning that makes Sam heart accelerate.

“I don’t care” he answers, when he should said “no”.

Steve does it. He kisses him. The paper thin walls around his heart can’t resist his feelings for Steve, it’s horrible, really, how much he wants it. How good Steve makes him feel, but also vulnerable at the same time. He can sense that he puts too much feelings in this kiss once again. Too much tenderness.

“You care about me”

“Yes-” Sam answers, resigned.

“Then why?”

“Because-” he takes a step back, just enough to gather his thoughts properly “I couldn’t risk my mission by telling you the truth. I didn’t want to lie to you, fight with you and then act as if nothing happened when we would see each other. Beside, do you know how easier it was to do everything when you were just the “enemy”?”

“You should have talked to me Sam. What do you think? That I would have arrested you?” Steve asks shocked by the idea. It’s not that he doesn’t understand Sam, it’s more that they could have come to a solution together.

“Maybe not, but would you lie to your team too then? You really wanted to be in that position?”

“So your solution was to pass for the worst asshole ever?”

“I never said it was a perfect plan, but at least, it worked, at least until now. I came to you because you talked to me about Bucky. Because I know what it means to think you can bring someone back”

Steve lets the information sink in. A part of him feels better now that he knows the truth but it’s clear that it would have been hard to hide everything from Nebula and Scott. He knows it had been easy to see the Lupinrangers as, not bad guys, but people who needed to be arrested at least. Sam decides to share what he can about his story giving a new perspective to Steve.

“We fought each other all along. I thought you were so annoying” Steve laughs while shaking his head in disbelief.

“Me?! What about you and always getting in our way? Oh my god, you’re so persistent”

“You threw me through a wall Sam”

“You fired at my grapple while I was using it and I hit three different things before touching the ground, three, Steve”

They both laugh, feeling kind of bad about the situation. There’s definitely a weigh lifted for both of them but it doesn’t mean everything is fine now.

Steve takes Sam hand and put his changer in it.

“Twenty four hours” he simply says, face severe.

Sam understand the trust put in him and knows it can’t be easy. He nods, put a quick kiss on Steve temple, whispering “thank you” and goes out.

 

“Did you escape? Are they coming for us? Are you hurt?” is the welcome he got once back at the Bistrot Jurer by Mantis, checking on him quickly.

“I’m good, and you?”

She nods. They agree to talk after the service and Sam goes to the others too, reassuring them that he is okay.

It’s past midnight by the time they are alone in the Bistrot and Sam relate the events and what he had learn. The second he shows them the PatRanger Vs Changer, Peter and Shuri are on it with genuine wonder.

“It’s so close to ours it’s scary. Did Vision said anything about other Rangers?” Shuri asks.

“Well, you can ask him directly when he will be here. Anyway, my theory is that Loki and Bucky are fused together or that Loki possesses him. If no collection piece can separate them directly, maybe by using the tech the GSPO need to fuse the three of them together in a fight we could produce the reverse effect?”

Peter and Shuri talks some more while Wanda and Mantis sneakily tries to have the tea on the “Steve situation”

“So, you said you stayed at his place earlier” Wanda says with a soft smile.

Sam takes a deep breathe, his own mouth quirking at the memory “Well, the man slept on the floor right in front of the door to be sure I wouldn’t escape”

Mantis laugh at the image “You could have jump through the window thought”

“He put a bell on it. Can you believe?”

He is happy to be back with his team, seeing them being their normal self. It makes him think about Steve, Scott and Nebula. It’s easy to diabolize people when you don’t know them. Now, it’s different. At least, to him and Mantis who knows one of the PatRangers. Lately, she avoids fighting with Nebula as the PatPink, Sam understands why.

They all agree to try to save Bucky Barnes, making Sam thanks them as he remembers a time when they would have want nothing to do with the PatRangers. Well, it’s not really a selfless act either since they know Loki has a powerful collection piece. Working with the other team instead of having to fight them would give them better opportunities.

They know the night is about to be long when Wanda calls Vision to involve him as well on the case.

 

Steve Rogers is a great agent, one of the best in his domain. He has a good reputation amongst his peers and a good instinct with people. He is hardworking and has a true sense of justice which is why he was choose to be PatRed.

None of that matter when he tells his team and Director Fury why he doesn’t have his Vs Changer right now.

They all let him know in some unflattering terms and mouth sounds that he is basically an idiot.

“I can’t believe you trusted him, again” Nebula had say, throwing her arms in the air.

“You know the VS Changer isn’t technically your property right?” Scott tried, upset but still trying to be a little supportive.

At the end, Fury simply said “You better have something Rogers because otherwise, there will be consequences”.

Steve had left the meeting room with a repentant look on his face and Nebula still commenting about the whole “Sam” situation. He couldn’t talk to her in front of Fury and he could easily imagine her perspective. He waited for the three of them to be alone near the training room to give them more information. Sam’s motivations for the break up may have been an important detail.

“I think you are letting your feelings for him cloud your judgments” she laughs without humor “I thought you were better than this. He is using you Steve”

He knows it came from a place of love and concern so even if the words hurt, he doesn’t let any kind of anger grow inside of him.

“We have to see the bigger picture here. They were all recruited by someone right after one of the worst moment of their life and they think they can bring everyone back. To be honest, I think they are being sort of taken advantage of. He came to us, we literally have everything we would need to arrest him and let’s be honest, we could probably find out the rest of his team if we really tried. He could have come to us transformed and we wouldn’t have known”

“Ok, but, are you sure you would have done that if he weren’t…you know, your ex?” Scott asks, trying to word his sentence in the less aggressive way possible.

“No, probably not” he answers truthfully. He doesn’t want to minimize what he had done and he can only hope Sam has thought about it too “I know what I am risking by letting him go. If he isn’t back tonight…Well, I’m fucked then”

“Yeah? So we’re fucked too since we are a team Rogers. We are a team” Nebula repeats still angry.

Steve put a hand on their shoulder “You don’t have to trust him, but you can always trust me” he concludes, praying every gods that Sam Wilson was the man he thought he was.

 

 


	5. Chapter 5

_Gamora was surprised by all the people who were here to see her band play. The Guardians of the Galaxy were slowly getting traction and it made Gamora proud since they had spent a year building their name._

_“Peter better not be late again” Rocket lamented. You could see he didn’t slept that much, he was easily irritated and looked even more like a gremlins (of a raccoon as Peter was calling him) than usually._

_“I just got him on the phone, he is on his way” Mantis answered. She was the non-official manager of the band and the reason they could play in that bar tonight._

_She had a natural talent to manage them. It was even more admirable when you were working with people like Peter, Rocket, Drax and Groot. They were talented but difficult human beings._

_She walked to Gamora and started massaging her shoulder, the singer moaned a little._

_“Relax, it’s gonna be okay. Everything is ready and we still have an hour before you have to play”_

_Gamora nods, tilt her head enough to let Mantis kiss her softly. It was new and natural at the same time. They knew each other since childhood but their feelings had grown beyond friendship in the last year._

_Peter managed to arrive a few minutes later making them all feel more relaxed and ready to go. Mantis looked at them start from backstage, after the first song, the bar owner came to her, complimenting the band and see if they could come back. The young woman felt proud while scheduling their next appearance._

_It took them a few minutes to notice the sudden silence, seconds later someone came to them, looking extraordinary pale despite the deep brown of their skin._

_He looked haunted and in choc._

_“Christ, Alex, you don’t look good” the owner said in a worried tone._

_“I…Ice…they are all…” He was pointing toward the scene, toward the customers. Mantis and the owner start walking in that direction when the sound of shattered glass resonated, then another one, and another one. On the scene, Mantis immediacy saw Gamora, prisoner of a translucent block. Everyone else had disappeared._

_She took one step, a second and she saw the rift in the block, she tried to get to Gamora but the block shattered in front of her in an instant. There was some agitation behind her, people who were backstage or in the kitchen are coming too. She walked slowly, turning back, wondering if she was dreaming it all. She put herself against a wall, trying to keep her mind in check instead of thinking of her girlfriend shattered on the scene she was singing on just a minute earlier. In the middle of it, a man with piercing blue eyes looked at her, sadness echoing her own on his face._

 

Nebula wasn’t used to go to the Bistrot Jurer alone but she felt the need to see Mantis, even if the woman was likely to be working and wouldn’t have the time to talk to her all that much. She was confused about the whole Steve-Sam situation. Their relationship wasn’t involving only the two of them due to their "job". It had an effect on their team and she could only hope Sam wasn’t playing with Steve again. It wouldn’t end well for him this time (she would make sure of it anyway). Besides, seeing her friend hurt like that not once but twice by the man had put him on her bad side. Of all the men Steve Rogers could have fallen for, why did it have to be the enemy?

Drinking her beer, Nebula thought about her sister in law. They weren’t close even if they did a lot of thing in periphery of one another. Mantis is the first friend of Gamora that actually tried to befriend her and one of the reason Gamora and Nebula started to get closer even if it was far from perfect.

The night she had been attacked, Nebula hadn’t even know what to feel, do or say. She knew an attack like that could happen everywhere but actually knowing some of the victims was hard to integrate. It took her a whole week to feel tears falls from her eyes. She just went to Steve’s and spent the night trying to find answers she couldn’t possibly find by herself.

Someone sat in front of her, putting their hand on her arm gently.

“What’s wrong?” Mantis asked, not wearing her usual working apron.

“Nothing, I was just thinking” she offers, not sure she should talk about it to Mantis of all people.

“Tell me”

Nebula looks around her, nobody seems to be paying attention but she tries to be vague and subtle just in case.

“Lately, we have to work with someone who’s- uh, kind of a bad person” she starts, thinks again, longer this time before carrying on “I mean, he did bad things but according to him, he got good reasons. Everyone thinks they got good reasons you know? The thing is, he has the capacity to screw us all now and I don’t like that he got that power in the first place”

“Do you think this is what he wants to do?” Mantis asks carefully, her heart not at peace knowing she is talking about Sam.

“I don’t know. I can only wait now anyway” she falls back in her chair, yawn “Let’s not talk about it. How are you?”

Mantis talks about her day and how it’s rare for her to finish this early. She easily radiates a positive aura, Nebula thinks. She understands why her sister loved her. She doesn’t even notice the time passing and half an hour later, she has to excuse herself to go to the restroom. Once finished, she gets out to go back to Mantis but because Wanda gets out of the kitchen just as she passes, she accidentally sees Sam talking with a black woman- Shuri? And someone she never saw before.

Sam is working here after all so it’s not so surprising to see him but isn’t he supposed to find a way to help Steve? Her curiosity get the best of her and she discreetly approach them, trying her best to listen.

“So what about the mission if you manage to make your plan work?” the man asked.

“I gave you my word that I will continue anyway. We can’t let them have the collection pieces, this is way too dangerous” Sam answered, taking the suitcase offered to him.

“It better work, the PatRangers won’t let us leave if we accidentally kill their friend” Shuri noted, biting her lips.

So, Shuri was one of them? One of the Lupinrangers ? Nebula was frowning. Blue and Yellow had female physique but Nebula didn’t want to just assume. Wait, Wanda just came out of here…does that mean Wanda and Shuri were Blue and Yellow? She needed to take Mantis away from them. Now.

 She goes back to their table, urgency in her voice.       

“We have to go”

“What? What’s wrong?”

Nebula doesn’t answer her instead, she takes her hand and walk away until they are out of the Bistrot. “Nebby!” Mantis calls again, only then Nebula stops.

“Mantis, Sam- he isn’t who you think he is”

Mantis frees her hand, mouth gaping a little.

“What do you mean?”

Nebula passes both of her hands on her shaved head, pacing in front of her then decides to tell her the truth.

“He and Shuri and probably, Wanda, I think- they are the LupinRangers. I mean, I’m sure about him and I am just guessing about the other two”

Mantis looks at her for a time that seems way too long, she doesn’t know what face she is doing but Nebula has way too good observation skills and under the stress of helping Mantis, all of her attention is directed on her. Which is why she notices the uncomfortable gestures of her hand, the way her eyes seems to look at everything except her, the little frown she has when she is hiding something.

“You knew?” Nebula asks slowly.

“Nebby- ”

“You KNEW! You fucking knew! MANTIS! How could you not tell me?”

“Well, you never said you were one of the PatRangers either so we're even”

Nebula’s anger is right under the surface when she asks to herself “ _What the hell?”_ She tries to take some deep breathes, even if she sounds almost more threatening by doing it “Please, tell me you are not helping them, I really don’t want to have to arrest you, you know that”

“I honestly thought you would change your mind at least a little after talking to Sam but I was wrong”

Mantis starts to walk away before going back in the Bistrot Jurer leaving a stunned Nebula in the middle of the street.

 

Steve doesn’t feel so good when it’s past midnight and he doesn’t have any news from Sam. He doesn’t want to believe the man betrayed him, there could be a million reasons for his absence after all.

It’s past 1am and a soft knock on his door makes him jolt from his couch and almost run to open without even checking who was there.

Sam smiles at him, a black backpack in hands.

“Hey” Sam says.

“I was scared you wouldn’t come back” Steve admits, obviously relieved. He bites his lips, looking away for a moment. He feels Sam body against his, it’s a reassuring hug making him relax and feels better immediately. He misses that, the way Sam feels in his arms. He knows he shouldn’t be thinking about it now but he can’t help himself.

“Sorry, it wasn’t easy”

Sam gives the VS Changer back first, then, after they both sit on Steve’s couch, he tries to explain what he had found and present him the device supposed to help them. It looks like a pink and gold Taser with a tube on each lateral sides.

“Your changer allows you to fuse with Nebula and Scott because it recognize your DNA and for a moment, allows it to merge with two other people right? So basically, that thing will be able to separate distinct DNA, don’t ask me, I’m not the tech guy. Anyway, the only problem is that we need Bucky and Loki’s DNA for it to work” Sam provides, showing different part of the weapon to Steve. “So, once again, you have to be absolutely one hundred percent certain that Barnes is alive and there because otherwise, we don’t know what it will do”

By the time they manage to come up with several plan, the sun is already up. Papers with drawing of strategies are spread on the couch and the living room table. Sam is surprised to appreciate Steve point of view on that kind of subject but both of them are warrior in a sense so there’s mutual understanding here.

After another cup of coffee, Steve notices that he should get ready for work.

“So, what about me?” Sam asks from where he is sitting on the small black couch “Am I your prisoner again PatRed?”

“You like being under my watch that much?” Steve answers too quickly to stop his flirtatious tone “Sorry, sorry, forget that, I’m tired. You can go, I’ll deal with director Fury”

Sam gaze intensifies, it’s not hard for Steve to understand that he is thinking about it. They didn’t talk about “them” and what all of those recent events means for them. Steve doesn’t know if he should talk about it or not. Does it matter? Does it matter to Sam anyway?

“As you wish” Sam answers, then add after too long “It’s hard for me too, you know? Being around you” He makes a face like he regrets what he is saying immediately, takes his coat, his empty backpack and leave, not without stopping at the door and giving Steve another look before closing the door.

 

They manage to find Bucky two weeks later. Two longs weeks of scanning the city and Sam and Steve keeping some distance. When Director Fury informs the PatRangers that they had found him, they know it won’t be long before Sam and his team appears too (if they’re not already there). They need to evacuate the mall as discreetly as possible while Steve approach Bucky. At least, he hopes that this is Bucky this time but had noticed that his eyes were glowing unnaturally only when Loki was in command.

“You shouldn’t be here” Bucky warns as a welcome.

“You have to trust me” he says, looking directly at Bucky and waiting for him to nod before coming close and take a strand of hair, carefully placed into a small plastic bag. The second it’s closed, Bucky’s eyes start glowing.

“This isn’t very nice of you Red, to steal someone’s hair” Loki snarled before trying to punch him.

“Loki’s here” Steve says in his com, Scott warns him that they need ten more minutes to be sure no one around.

In the meantime, Steve tries to draw Loki outside (the less property damages, the better), some windows are sacrificed in the process anyway but it works. Steve needs to wait for him to take his true form before taking another piece of hair, luckily, the Lupinrangers appears out of nowhere, along with the rest of his team.

“Already starting the party?” Sam asks teasingly.

“That's what happens when you're late” Steve answers, rolling on the ground after dodging a nasty kick.

The rest of the teams are looking at each other, not sure exactly how to proceed since it’s the first time they technically are working together. However they know what to do when Loki invokes the Porderman except they are not the only one joining the party.

“Boss was wondering what you were doing. I see you’re having fun” Hela welcomes, charging at Scott and Shuri. It was already precarious fighting Loki (not even in full form) but with the vaguely monster-ish woman it was even harder.

“Red, we need to force him to take his real form. Did you get a piece of Bucky already?” Sam asks while protecting the PatRanger.

“Got it and ready” he shows the device”Shield formation. Pink, Green, together”

Even from where they were, Nebula and Scott managed to join their leader and attack at the same time with their weapon from a different angle. Loki can’t block them all and has no other choice than to take his real form to fight back.

They can’t get close enough to get a stand of hair and Hela doesn’t let them breathe either. Scott is the first one to get injured seriously, trying to deflect a hit aimed at Shuri. It distracts Steve for one second, but it’s a second used by Loki to hit him. Sam doesn’t let the occasion go to waste and stole a whole piece of hair thanks to his boomerang.

Loki fumes threatening Sam and, in turn, allows Steve to retreat (and place a hit on Hela in the process).

“So annoying” Loki says before Hela retaliate by sending an energy blast toward Nebula, a hit taken in fact by a jumping Mantis, trying to protect her friend which would have work if Loki hadn’t decided to attack too.

Mantis body flies away rolling and rolling until she demorphs, not moving. Sam wants to scream and go to her, but this is his chance to put the hair in the taser so he takes it from Steve, seeing in his peripheral vision Nebula running toward Mantis body.

“Fuck” he thinks, realizing that she will know who LupinYellow really is.  But he can’t stop now and Loki is already preparing for another attack on Steve. He can’t let that happen too.

“NO” he yells, jumping to use the taser on Loki’s back exept Loki turns at the last time and Sam mind goes blank has the ice beam touches him and he falls on the ground, ice covering him quickly.

“SAM!” Steve shouts, Hela is laughing, disappearing god knows where.

Two seconds later, the ice cracks and nobody moves at first, looking at the fresh fuming pile.

Someone his screaming Sam’s name behind Steve, still facing Loki who smile shamelessly. It takes him a moment to understand that this is LupinYelow screaming and another one to notice that he knows that voice.

Mantis.

Nebula is in shock, both because of Sam death and Mantis being the Yellow ranger. Nebula grabs her and hold her, Mantis, as furious as she is isn’t in a fighting state.

“Mantis, you stay here, we’ll deal with him” she says. She nods and Nebula understand the plea in her eyes.

They regroup, Nebula, Scott, Shuri and Steve, facing Loki. “Who’s next?” the Gangler asks with a sadistic smile.

 

 

“Death is wack”

This is the first thought Sam has when he wakes up in that place. It’s too dark to actually see the walls or the ceiling of that big room. An opaque fog is hiding everything below his knees. There’s no window and the light only comes from hundreds of candles.  

“Someone’s there?” he asks loudly while checking himself for injuries. He is in the same clothes that before, only demorphed. He still got is VS Changer and the taser.

Weird.

He isn’t sure about what he should do or where he should go. After a certain time, he starts hearing something. It’s getting closer and closer until a man comes out of the shadows. He looks like Bucky and Sam feels relieved for a second.

“Which one are you?” he asks, because if his personal Hell is to face Loki for eternity, he ain’t ready for that.

“Follow me” Bucky/Loki says before turning and walking away without answering him.

“I ain’t following you anywhere, you killed me you fucking…”

“I didn’t do anything. Loki did” the man cuts before gesturing for Sam to follow him. It’s hand on his VS Changer that Sam reluctantly do as told. They walk for a while before arriving in front of a giant door.

“So you’re Bucky right?” The man looks at him, shrugs “This isn’t an answer”

“Who are YOU anyway?” the man asks with an attitude, as if Sam was an intruder.

“Sam, Steve’s friend. You remember Steve? Tall, blond, doing heroic shit left and right”

“You mean getting into trouble left and right. Yeah, I remember Steve” He pauses “Sorry Loki got you”

“So am I dead or nah?”

Bucky looks at him in the eyes then start laughing. “Pal, you really think you would see ME of all people if you were dead?”

“How would I know? So where are we then? Because we were actually fighting him so…”

Bucky’s eyes are narrowing when he asks “We?”

“Yeah, Steve there too so if you don’t want him here, maybe we can, I don’t know, work together?”

“Fuck, I knew he would try something like that” He passes a metal hand (a metal hand??) in his hair in a desperate gesture “I don’t know how to escape. The only time I have control of my body is when he decides it, otherwise I’m trapped here, like everyone else” he finishes pointing toward the ceiling.

Sam follows the finger, he doesn’t understand what he is looking at.

“What…is that? What do you mean everyone one else?”

Whatever is there starts moving what looks like tentacles covered in glowing pustules “BARNES?!”

“It’s the guardian here, he gets everyone…everyone except me. And soon, he’ll get each and every one on your ridiculous little team” Bucky starts laughing, revealing his true face as Loki. “Disappointed?”

Sam has to dodge a giant brown tentacle, jumping away and morphing in the same move. He needs to get closer to Loki. He won’t give up until he has wiped that smile off his smug face. Barely dodging one of them, he can see a vaguely human form inside the “pustule”.

“Is that people in these things? This is truly disgusting” he says to Loki.

“Of course they are, and in due time, I’ll use them to become The Boss instead of, you know, the Boss”

Sam knows he can’t keep fighting for long so he waits for the perfect opportunity and invoke his boomerang, throwing it with all the strength he still has and missing Loki entirely.

“You really are insignificant” the Gangler laughs before Sam points toward the ceiling as Loki did before only to see the boomerang cut through one of the biggest tentacle and making it fall right on Loki. He jumped away but fall into Sam’s trap, the LupinRed is against him in a flash.

“Bye fucker” Sam says right as he activates the taser. The power is so much that the device project Sam away. He hadn’t recovered yet but Loki is on him, grabbing him, face inches away.

“WHAT DID YOU DO?”

Sam wonders if this is how he is going to die, but something crashes against Loki, sending him away. “We have to finish him” the man say.

Sam immediately uses one of the tentacles attack to jump on it and does it again to get the perfect angle before unleashing his final attack on a distracted Loki. The Gangler fall on the ground and disappears in ice pieces.

Sam turns toward the man as the creature or whatever is on the ceiling starts disappearing too, letting his pustules/cocoon or whatever the hell this is fall on the ground. Weapon ready and aimed at the man, Sam warns “You better be the real Bucky otherwise you’ll end up like that Loki”

“I don’t know how to convince you but thank you, you saved us”

Sam wants to argue about that but once every tentacles are on the ground, the fog starts thickening and becoming ice, trapping them.

“Not again” he complains.

 

 

“We can’t let him escape! Pink cut his retreat, Blue, from above” Steve orders. Loki suddenly starts getting unwell. Something was happening but they can’t’ see what. It doesn’t matter, they need to end this now.

Loki tries to run away only to have Nebula shot at his feet and effectively stopping him.

He is surrounded. Even Scott and Mantis are joining them despite their injuries.

“It’s over Loki, you’ll pay for everyone you have taken”

Loki laughs, his eyes full of dementia, eyes glowing abnormally “You think you can fight the Boss? You think you can win? You are nothing you miserable humans!”

“Blue!” Steve shouts and Shuri drops on Loki opening his safe and removing the small pistol, jumping away when the furious Gangler screams and turns.

“Got it Red” she says, already hiding the collection piece away.

“Now, together!” Steve says, and Loki look at them, his face his cracked and he looks like he has a hard time keeping himself together. He can’t run when they launch their final attack.

He explodes in a firework of fire and ice and fog.

“We can’t risk him becoming giant” Nebula warns. Steve knows she’s right.

“Once again” Steve orders and they don’t hesitate, firing at the already broken safe.

Steve can’t find an ounce of happiness at that. He just lost Sam and definitely lost Bucky too. He tries to shove the pain away, not letting it swallow him in one bite because the war isn’t over and he isn’t the only one who lost someone else.

He is turning toward Mantis and Scott, trying to find his words.

“Uh, boss, I think something is happening” Scott says pointing behind Steve. Nebula and Shuri both joins them, already in a fighting stance.

The broken parts of the safe are turning on themselves, swept by a cold wind and glowing until they stop mid-air, changing form until they look like a giant metal door frame almost taking all the width of the two way street. The inside starts to glow too, the same light blue shade as Loki’s eyes and more white fog comes from it. Everything around them start having a light coat of frost on it. Curious people at their windows needs to open them to still see.

“Everybody get ready” Steve says as they take a few steps back to keep a safe distance between them and whatever is coming from that giant portal.

Without any sign announcing it, a giant wave erupted from the portal. Liters and liters of cold water knocking everything on its way. The more curious witnesses are running away, the nearest cars submerged.

“Oh shit” Nebula curses.

“On that roof” Steve points toward a small building next to them.

“Come in” Shuri declares, invoking her Blue Dial Fighter, the air plane not really fit to take five persons in but flying anyway.

The flood carry on for twenty minutes and some people are even swept by it. Luckily it doesn’t last.

“Is that diamonds?” Mantis asks “No…wait a minute” she put on some weird binocular “it’s…people…Shuri, it’s people!!”

Shuri immediately put the mecha down as close as she can while the flood recedes. Thousands of giant ice cube are laying here and there, shining in the night. Five minutes later, the Rangers are walking amongst them, not daring to touch them until Mantis comes close to one.

“Neby- it’s Gamora. Gamora’s here!”

Nebula run toward her, so does the rest of their team. The women is frozen a mask of shock on her face. Mantis hand is trembling but she approaches it from the ice, the other on her heart, she closes her eyes and touches it. It’s not cold really.

It cracks.

“NO!” Nebula shout before the ice brakes.

Shockingly, the person inside is still there, then after a second takes a deep gulp of air before coughing.

“Gamora?” Nebula says, not daring move.

“Sis? What happened?”

Mantis and Nebula exchange a look before jumping on the woman and rolling on the ground, crying and shouting.

“We did it?” Shuri asks, looking at Steve with hope. He turns toward the closest crystal and like Gamora, it reveals someone alive and, seemingly well.

“PatRed to Commander Fury. Send everyone here. We got them”

 

One hour after, they are still freeing people from the thousands of crystal laying around. The portal had disappeared a little more than twenty minutes ago. They had found Scott daughter and Shuri’s brother and father. Soon, the street was full, the word quickly spreading and everyone celebrating.

Steve was still helping and had wanted the other to go back home while he finished the job but they had refused, claiming that they were not leaving without Sam. Steve feels tears in his eyes as the time passes. _Where is Sam? He should be here right? Everyone else is here, he should be here too_. The thoughts are making him dizzy enough he almost falls, caught by Shuri offering him a sympathetic look.

“We will find him, there’s a lot of people here, some we haven’t freed yet”

“Yeah, I know. It’s just…I feel like I just killed Bucky myself. I murdered my best friend and I lost the man I…sorry, sorry I should be professional, now is not the time” he cuts himself, wiping tears and dirt from his face, putting the mask of the man in charge.

“Steve, you’ve been through a lot, you don’t have to be strong all the time. I sure wasn’t when I started trying to kick monsters asses. But now, look at us. We brought all of them back and I’m sure we will find him too”

He nods, following her amongst the loud crowd. People cheering, crying, trying to find their loved one or contact them. Even with the police and GSPO, it wasn’t possible for them to block the army of journalist running around to tell the news to the world.

“Fuck it” Steve says before jumping on the top of a camion and using his megaphone.

“SAAAAAAAMMMM!” he shouts so loud everyone else shut up, looking at him. There’s no other sound as he tried to look at the crowd. “SAAAAAMMM WILLLLSOOON!!” he shouts even louder, not caring one bit over the discomfort of the closest one.

“Damn boy, why are you so loud for?” a voice behind him say.

He turns so fast he accidentally trips and fall almost head first, lucky him, the one answering him catches him too.

“Sam?!” he says with disbelief even if he was looking for him and hoped he was here.

“Wow, you should see your face Steve, wait till you see an actual ghost” he smiles, letting Steve go to take a step away and reveals someone else.

“Hey punk, always in trouble I see”

“No way- I thought- you were-”

“Dead? Nah, still going to keep an eye on you”

Steve throw himself on Bucky, not missing a beat and groping Sam in the same move.

 “You are both asshole, don’t leave me again” he ugly cries.

Bucky and Sam exchange a fond look and pat him, even if Steve threaten to crush them with his hugs.

Shuri isn’t far behind, followed by the rest of their team.

“Glad you’re here Sam, and Bucky, next time you think it’s a good idea to try interdimensional travel, I’m going to come and kill you myself” Nebula threatens.

“Nice to see you too Neb” he grins before taking her in his arms too right before being jumped on by Scott.

“Buuuuckkkyyy, you’re aliveeee, I’m so ha-ha-happy” he cries even more desperate than Steve, his daughter clinging to his back too.

“Wait a minute Mantis, you did what now?!” they hear Gamora nearly screams making Shuri and Sam laugh at them.

Steve tugs on Sam shirt, looking shy behind his eyelashes but at the same time, the happiest Sam has seen him. It makes something to Sam heart, seeing Steve like that. They did something great together and he feels lucky right now, surrounded by their friend and family.

“Thank you”

Sam nods, looks at Bucky and the rest of the people. He can’t believe that they defeated Loki and brought back the one he had taken away.

“I should go now” he says, already taking a step back.

 Steve has other plans, slowly moving his hand to catch Sam’s. He doesn’t know what to say, so many things are in his mind it’s hard to concentrate enough behind simple ideas. He just look at Sam’s eyes in silence. Sam tugs at his sleeve in return, eyes suddenly on the ground but in a gesture asking Steve to come closer. Almost body to body, Sam looks at him before kissing him, just a peck on his lips for two seconds but it’s enough to light Steve on fire. Without a word Sam turns away and leave.

“Damn, your face is so red” Bucky laugh before shaking his head ”so, what did I miss?”

 

It takes a little less than a week to clean the mess Loki’s death and his “prisoner” released had created. Everybody needed to get a medical check, after all, you can’t disappear inside a monster for weeks, months or even years without consequences but it turns out the inside of Loki were a sort of pocket dimension. Time didn’t pass the same way it did outside and the crystal they were trapped kind of acted like a freezer so they hadn’t age that much.  It was an intense moment, especially with people founding their loved one a little later like Peter’s aunt as well as Wanda’s brother.

Luckily, no Gangler decided to attack during that week.

Readjusting to life after what happened was hard considering they were all declared dead with the consequences it had on the people around them.

Bucky felt lucky to had been at least somehow conscious even when Loki was “in charge”. His memories were foggy but it was better than just not remembering anything. He already had the “It wasn’t your fault, you were manipulated” conversation with at least six different person. Didn’t change that his body was there. By the end of the week, he had talked to Commander Fury about the GSPO and working with the PatRangers in any capacity. He got a weird VS Changer and a really intense fight with Steve. The only luck he did have in that mess of a conversation was Fury informing them that the Lupinrangers were unofficially pardoned and considered a “private task force”.

Steve was still schooling him about “doing stupid things” as if he wasn’t worse when they were going to the Bistrot Jurer.

“Hi Steve” Mantis welcomed “Bucky”

“Hi Mantis” Bucky started “Did you got “The Talk” from Nebula? Steve had been unbearable”

Steve didn’t even looked sorry.

“Oh my god, I thought I was off the hook with Gamora’s return but the very next day, she came to my apartment and talked and talked and when she felt that I wasn’t responsive enough, she called her sister and let me tell you, the two together are the apocalypse”

“Well” Steve tried to defend his friend and himself “it’s because this is dangerous and no one wants you hurt”

Bucky AND Mantis were quick to answer in a weirdly effective combo.

“Glad we don’t have any customers yet with that kind of conversation” Sam says coming from the kitchen. “Hey guys” he adds, walking straight to Steve and as if it was the most natural thing in the world, kiss him. Mind you, they hadn’t seen or talk to each other since the “liberation night”

Bucky and Mantis made some noises and Steve flushed red.

“Can I talk to you for a minute?” he asks, already going outside to the same place Sam had that horrible conversation with Nebula before. ”I am confused”

“About what?”

“You. What are we supposed to be? Because you can’t just decide to come back as if nothing happened Sam”

Sam put his back against the wall, hands behind himself.

“I know. I am sorry. I shouldn’t have kissed you and assume you wanted it too”

“Okay, so where do we go from there?”

Sam takes the time to consider what he is about to say. Honesty seems like the best option.

“I love you Steve. I am not saying it to convince you of anything. I just love you because you are an amazing man, being with you makes me happy and I want a future with you, at least, a chance to make things right”  Steve thinks long and hard about being petty, after all, being dumped had hurt him but maybe they can be better than that.

He knows Sam can read his struggle on his face but it’s hard to trust again when you have already been hurt by someone. Steve knows Sam had his reasons and it wasn’t an easy situation for him. He doesn’t know how he would have handled it himself in his shoes.

He is probably taking too long to say something because Sam sight and smile “It’s okay Steve, I understand. At least we are lucky not being arrested” he laughs, an obvious try to distract from the subject “I’m going back, I need to make sure everything is ready”

He pushes himself off the wall only to have Steve come in front of him and push him back before kissing the life out of him. He makes a surprised noise but answers the kiss quickly and fully.

“I love you too, you jerk” Steve says softly, putting his whole body against Sam "Don't lie to me again or act like you can't trust me"

"I won't" Sam breathes. After what they have been through, he means it.

 

A few hugs and kisses later they go back to the Bistrot, hand in hand. Scott, Gamora, Shuri, Bucky, Mantis, Peter, Wanda and Vision are here, obviously waiting for something.

Sam turns his head to hide his smile and his face seems even darker. Steve bites his lips and show their connected hand.

They all cheers and claps at the new couple but for some reason, stays aligned like a wall.

“Someone’s here for you Sam” Shuri says, grinning from ear to ear.

Sam frowns, look at Steve right before the group separate, revealing a man smirking knowingly.

“He isn’t half ugly Wilson, good job” he says.

“Riley?!” Sam screams, running toward him, jumping on his best friend and hugging him tight.

“So, looks like we have a lot to catch up”

Sam look at the group around them “Yeah, we have”

 

One hour later, Riley is in the know, shaking his head at the story. Someone’s knock on the door, interrupting the chatters and laughs.

“Another surprise?” Sam asks “This is already too much for one day”

Mantis goes to the door and when she comes back, a redhead is with her.

“Welcome, we aren’t open yet” Sam says with a smile but still approaching the woman.

“Well, that’s the point, we don’t want customers overhearing us. Hey Viz”

“Natasha, long time no see” the strange man greets.

The group is surprised to see the woman talk to Vision as if it wasn’t the first time he acknowledged knowing anyone beside Lupin.

“Excuse me but, who are you again?” Shuri asks.

“Oh, sorry, I’m Natasha, the new Lupin X”

“Wait a minute, why don’t I have a changer too?” Peter pouts, making the Rangers laugh.

“If you did well with your exeams, I may have a little something for you” Vision says, smiling like he was keeping a secret (which he probably did at all time).

It was far from being the end of their troubles and they knew they would need all the help they could get for the future challenges but somehow, Steve and Sam felt that together, it will be okay.


End file.
